Spirit's Balance
by Lupine Horror
Summary: Ever since he could remember, Naruto could see things that no one else could. 'Monsters', things that hid under the bed and went bump in the night. Having the yang half of the kyuubi sealed inside of him forced Naruto's yin chakra to evolve to balance it, which resulted in a mutation that let him see what he shouldn't. This is fan fiction, I only own the plot.
1. First Encounters

AN: Okay, so I've got a new story out. Now, while part of the reason for this is because I was running out of steam for my other fics, there's more to it than that. With this story, I'm going to slowly branch off and away from the Harry Potter centric stories I'm writing. I know Naruto isn't exactly a major jump, but it's something, and the next story I write might be of another series completely. However, there's going to be a lot of Natsume Yuujinchou in here too, though no Takashi or Reiko, as that is one of my all time favourite series, alongside Tasogare Otome X Amnesia. Madara the youkai will turn up, but unlike Natsume Yuujinchou, he won't be Naruto's main point of contact with the youkai world. Whereas Natsume had the cat Madara, I'm thinking of having Benio as a butterfly be Naruto's more constant companion.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 1 – First Encounters

When the Kyuubi was released upon Konoha, it was sealed. That much is true, it is a fact. However, like with all stories, there is more to it than that, much more. What no one in Konoha asks, neither those who knew about the previous host nor those who didn't, was _why_ it attacked their village.

Of course, that is but one of many questions that could, and _should,_ have been asked but weren't. Still, those questions will be addressed in time, just not yet. Right now, our tale starts with the sealing of the mega fox of doom into the blonde baby of inevitable heroism.

Actually, that's not entirely true. After all, the entire Kyuubi was not sealed inside of the baby, only half of it. The Yondaime Hokage had the 'brilliant' idea to do something that had never been done before, and _ripped the fox's soul into pieces_ , half of it being sealed inside of the child, and the other half being sealed within himself, before the Shinigami dragged his soul off to be its plaything for all eternity.

Now, what is important here is that the half of the Kyuubi that was sealed into newborn Naruto was the Yang half of the fox, yang being the physical part of chakra, with yin being its spiritual counterpart. The problem is, nature _abhors_ imbalance. Predators and prey rely on each other, their numbers increasing and decreasing together, and power vacuums don't last for long.

The Kyuubi's massive reserves of yang chakra, added to Naruto's own, absolutely dwarfed his yin chakra, like a planet dwarfs an ant. To 'balance' this out, Naruto's own yin chakra was forced to grow, to develop, simply to try and match this massive amount of power.

However, this development was not natural, and what is not natural does not always end well for those involved. In this case, the massive amount of spiritual power growing inside Naruto's infantile body forced a mutation. It wasn't a visible mutation, and neither was it a chakra mutation or bloodline. Instead, it forced upon something that was both gift, and curse…

xxxxx

Naruto was an outcast, an outsider, even amongst the other orphans in the orphanage.

This was not because of his status as a jinchuuriki, or at least not solely because of that. After all, the Sandaime Hokage had forbidden anyone from speaking of that, not that it actually _was_ a secret to anyone more than a decade older than Naruto. No, Naruto was strange because of his 'lies'.

He would shout and yell at things that weren't there, scream about monsters that no one else could see, and talked about people that simply weren't there. His tales ranged from the simple, such as shadows giving him an evil smile, to the complex, like the time he claimed that one of the civilians he saw was being stalked by a monster.

When said civilian vanished two days later, Naruto was questioned. However, when the blonde boy couldn't describe the 'monster' beyond it being 'an armless shadow with a mouth full of sharp teeth', it was dismissed as a coincidence, and mostly forgotten about.

Still, Naruto was known as a crazy demon child that caused bad luck because of everything that happened around him. This isolated him from the other orphans, and while the matrons of the orphanage tried to treat him just like all the others, the strain clearly showed.

Naruto actually got his own room at the orphanage, but that was because none of the other orphans were brave enough to share it with him, and the 'room' was barely bigger than a cupboard in any case. All it contained was a bed with a box slid underneath that contained all of the blonde's clothes, the only things he owned himself.

This didn't upset Naruto at all, as he only really slept in that room, nothing else. The rest of the time he spent outside, and given his reputation, as far away from other people as he could get. That led to Naruto spending the majority of his time in the trees and clearings that were still inside of the village limits.

Children, both civilian and shinobi, played here, but they never went very deep into the forests, not like Naruto did. The adults didn't venture there either, the civilians too busy with their own lives, and the shinobi had their training grounds to use.

It was while a five year old Naruto was wandering between the trees that an event that would change the course of history would occur, not that anything was particularly special about the atmosphere or anything. It was a relatively normal day, not too bright and sunny, and yet not raining either. It was not, in fact, a Tuesday either, but a Sunday, though neither day is particularly significant. There was a light breeze, and it was early summer.

There was a woman sat in a tree. One of her legs was laid along the tree branch she was on, while the other dangled off the side. She had short, dark brown hair, and brown eyes. She wore a pink yukata, that had a purple flower design on it, held closed by a dark purple obi. What really caught Naruto's attention, however, was a butterfly ornament that covered half of her face.

"Pretty." He mumbled under his breath, though it was quite audible.

"Hah!" The woman cried. "A human praising nature, at least one of them has some good taste."

Naruto's eyes widened in shock at hearing her say 'human'. That meant… well, it meant she probably wasn't one, and even if she didn't look half as monstrous as other 'things' Naruto had seen, they were all bad news in his books.

Naruto's shock had not gone unnoticed though, and the woman sat up before hopping off the branch, taking note of how the blonde's eyes clearly followed her. Huh, this was intriguing, a human that could see her. She had thought the last of them had died out centuries ago, though she had heard rumours about a priestess girl up in demon country who could still see.

Slowly wandering towards the boy, she could clearly see how tense he was, and a smirk crawled across her face. It was clear the boy was on the verge of running away from her, but he seemed frozen into inaction. Well, that wouldn't do. Lord Riou may like humans, and out of respect for him she'd refrain from eating this one, but she wasn't above mischief and tricks.

Leaning down in front of the boy, who was positively tiny, she allowed her smile to get even wider, wider than a human's smile would have ever stretched, and gave him a predatory look that clearly sang to his baser instincts, if the growing fear in his eyes was anything to go by.

She breathed in deeply, before speaking. "Oh, a little morsel chooses to so easily wander my way." She licked her lips. "It's been a while since I ate a human, perhaps you could sate my appetite, little one."

That was it, Naruto snapped.

He turned and fled right back towards Konoha and relative safety. There was a small shrine near the edge of the forest that civilians sometimes prayed to, and he had noticed that the monsters rarely went near them. That made them safe places in his book, and he couldn't get there fast enough.

Naruto didn't notice a butterfly following him every step of the way.

xxxxx

Later that night, deep in one of the forests of Konoha, a party was going on. This wasn't a party for humans though, no, this was a party for youkai. Spirits and beings of many different forms were cheering, singing, dancing, chatting, drinking, and enjoying themselves throughout the night.

Several youkai were telling stories, though the material varied from youkai to youkai. Some spoke of fights between different individuals, of strength, power, and domination. Others spoke of things they had seen, the wonders of nature, and the strange things the humans did. Yet more youkai reminisced about times long since past, about memories that remained, and opportunities long since lost.

The 'butterfly woman', who was named Benio, however, had a much different tale to tell, one more recent than any other. She spoke not of youkai, nor of the past, and not of nature. No, she spoke of a young child she had encountered that day, and the scare she had given him. She spoke of how clear-sighted the boy was, as she had followed him for the rest of the day, and while she had remained unnoticed as a butterfly, there was not one other youkai that escaped his notice.

"Ah, so there is still one left who can see." Tsuyukami, a white masked youkai said. "I actually think I know the one you speak of. He often comes to my shrine and curls up underneath it, to escape the others I guess. Interesting, I wonder if he would hear me were I to speak to him."

"Heh, a human with the sight." Another youkai huffed. "How… strange. I thought the only ones left with even the potential for that were off in the far East, in 'demon' country." She puffed on her kiseru pipe. "I don't see how someone anywhere near here could ever possess such a thing."

"Anything is possible, Hinoe." Another youkai said. "I find myself intrigued by this human as well, though I am rather disappointed by how Benio chose to approach him. Scaring him like that was rather childish and petty of her."

"Hey!" Benio exclaimed. "I didn't eat him, isn't good enough for you, you soft-hearted idiot!"

Hinoe waved her pipe in Benio's face, causing her to cough and splutter, though she shut up.

"You should know by now, Benio, what to expect from our resident optimist. Without Sui around to ground him, I'm sure that he'd be amongst the clouds by now, his head's filled with that much hot air." Hinoe chuckled.

"Sui is the adventurous one of us two." Gen pouted. "I'm happy in my statue, but if we had the opportunity, and Sui wanted to, I'd explore the whole world with her."

"We know, you hopeless romantic." Benio snarked at him.

Gen proceeded to huddle under a tree, a storm cloud over his head, for the next ten minutes, until Sui came along and cheered him up.

Tsuyukami just chuckled at the display, before reaching for some more sake. "Ah, Gen, always the emotional one."

"Always the crybaby, you mean." Benio snorted. "When he's not fawning over Sui, he's finding something else to be depressed about."

"I suppose." Tsuyukami shrugged. "Never mind him now though, Sui will look after him. I'm still rather interested in our local sighted human. Was there anything else odd about him that you noticed before you scared him off?"

"Nothing much." Benio shrugged. "He was a tiny little thing, a baby even by human standards. He was blonde with blue eyes, wore a black shirt with a symbol on it, and a pair of white shorts. He had some marks on his face… and he absolutely reeked of raw power."

"Power?" Hinoe asked, interested. "What sort of power?"

"Nothing old." Benio replied. "It was all of his own, and it was immense. It's wild though, untrained, but what do you expect from humans, especially when there's nobody to train him in it?"

"The humans have their chakra though, don't they?" Tsuyukami mused. "At least, I remember… who was it, Hagaromo? Yes, I believe he had some sort of power he called chakra, didn't he?"

"The boy had chakra, yes." Benio admitted. "But it was the spiritual power I sensed, something that exceeded even lords Riou, Misuzu, and Rokka combined."

"Really now?" Hinoe mused. "Now you're really making me curious. Perhaps I'll take a look in on this child myself."

"Do whatever you want, I'm going for more sake." Benio replied, picking up her now empty sake saucer.

Hinoe glanced towards Tsuyukami. "Tomorrow, would you mind showing me where, from your shrine, the kid usually comes from?"

"Will do." The masked youkai agreed. "I think he lives near my shrine, he hides there often enough."

Hinoe thanked him, before heading out to enjoy the party some more, but a small part of her mind was curiously turning over the thought of this child in her mind.

xxxxx

When Naruto returned to the orphanage, after hiding out at a shrine for a few hours, he immediately went to 'his' room. That monster today had been far scarier than all of the others, if only because she'd looked completely human, not even having an extendible neck or anything. If he couldn't tell the difference between people and monsters, then he didn't know what he'd do!

He slept fitfully that night, and awoke the next morning with shadows under his eyes.

As he left the orphanage after breakfast and headed to the nearest shrine, he passed the library. Naruto lamented the fact that he currently couldn't read anything more complex than his own name, because he was sure he'd find something in there about what these things he was seeing could be. Even if they were myths and legends, it would be something.

Stopping at a shrine, Naruto was surprised to find two people he didn't recognise there.

One of them was a man who wore a white mask with a moustache painted on, a red cap, and traditional clothing. The other was a beautiful woman with blue hair who wore a traditional kimono in vivid colours that had a pattern of flower petals on it, and she held a pipe in one hand that she was smoking.

"Hmm, is this the one?" The woman asked, to which the man nodded.

"I think so, and he can clearly see us both." The man replied.

Once again, this caused Naruto to freeze. Why would they talk like they usually couldn't be seen? The only logical answer would be because it's true, and there was only one group of 'beings' that Naruto could think of that he could see and others couldn't.

These two were obviously monsters as well!

Before he could flee though, Naruto felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder, keeping him in place. Turning slowly, he found the woman with the pipe was holding him in place, seemingly far more relaxed than Naruto was right now, and he felt himself beginning to hyperventilate.

"Calm down, kid." The masked man said. "Benio might have scared you the other night, but Hinoe and I are just a bit curious about you." He comforted the obviously frightened Naruto. "There's not many people that can see us at all, much less as clearly as you seem able to, almost like you're on of us."

"O-one of you?" Naruto masked hesitantly.

"We're yokai, kid." The woman, Hinoe, told him. "You know, spirits, ghosts, phantoms, etcetera. Most people can't see us, in fact we'd thought there was no one left who had that ability, but then you turn up. We got curious about you, so… do you feel like telling us about yourself?"

"You want to know about me?" Naruto asked cautiously.

"Yeah, we do." Tsuyukami said. "I've seen you hiding under my shrine before, but I didn't realise you could see us."

"Umm, okay then." Naruto mumbled. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm five years old. My birthday is October tenth, and I can see monst- youkai." He stumbled over the word. "Umm, I live in the orphanage, and… I like to go on walks and play in the trees? The other kids think I'm freaky and weird, so they don't play with me, and the adults seem scared of me for some reason."

"My name is Tsuyukami." The masked youkai introduced himself. "I don't know how old I am though, not many youkai do as we don't keep track of time. I would say that I'm probably centuries old at least, maybe even more than a thousand. I live around here, where my shrine is, and I like watching the weather change. I often go out to gatherings of other youkai to have some fun too."

Tsuyukami and Naruto both looked at Hinoe, who had a small smile on her face. She huffed slightly before introducing herself the same way.

"I am Hinoe." She said. "I'm not sure how old I am either, and I live deeper into the forest. Like Tsuyukami, I go to the gatherings to drink and be merry. I do have quite the collection of scrolls that I read through occasionally, and I enjoy smoking too."

"Ah, it's nice to meet you two." Naruto, knowing his manners, tried to be as polite as possible to the two mons- youkai. _They_ wouldn't think him crazy for being able to see them… and it wasn't like they were trying to scare him or attack him either. In fact, they were being downright friendly. Tsuyukami seemed generally jovial and Hinoe seemed more curious than anything.

"So, Naruto, what is it you normally do during the day?" Tsuyukami asked.

"Umm, well, I go to school during the week. When I turn eight, I might change to the ninja academy though." Naruto said. "After school, I stay outside until it's time to go back to the orphanage and sleep. I always end up running away from youkai though, so I hide at shrines. Youkai don't seem to like them too much."

"That's because people pray at shrines." Tsyukami explained. "Unless you're a youkai that's 'in tune' with such things, the minor holy power a used shrine gives off is uncomfortable, and in some cases painful for us. Stronger youkai like Hinoe here can ignore that however."

"Naruto, you said you go to school?" Hinoe asked. "What time does it start?"

Naruto paused, before his eyes widened in surprise. Realising he'd stayed at the shrine too long, he turned and began running towards his school. Before he disappeared though, he shouted a farewell over his shoulder.

As the blonde boy disappeared around a corner, Hinoe's lips quirked up into an amused smile.

"What an interesting little child." She mused.

Tsuyukami nodded in agreement. "I think the near future will become quite interesting with him nearby."

"Of course." Hinoe agreed. "With a sighted child around, it will draw more youkai to the area, curious ones."

"And those that will eat him because of the power he contains." Tsuyukami added.

"That too." Hinoe conceded. "Though if Lord Riou found out about him, he'd have some protection at least."

"Should we tell him?" Tsuykami wondered aloud.

"No." Hinoe replied. "I think we should introduce them."


	2. Initial Aftermath

AN: Okay, here's chapter two. Now, a few things I think I should say: First off, chapter length. I'm going to aim for around five to six thousand words a chapter, but sometimes I might write more than that. I'll try and update fairly frequently as well, especially now that I have plenty of ideas for where to take this story. Secondly, content. A lot of the 'early years' before Naruto becomes a genin will likely be drawn from or inspired by Natsume Yuujinchou, and even when Naruto does graduate, don't expect things to follow canon, as I already have some ideas about when, how, and who he graduates with and what he does afterwards. Third, there's actually a forum I have going if you want to talk about this fic. You can either follow the link on my profile page or use this: topic/139203/149040634/1/General-Spirit-s-Balance-Discussion

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 2 – Initial Aftermath

After school that day, Naruto quickly returned to the shrine. Tsuyukami had said he often saw Naruto there, so that means he must have been there pretty often as well. Besides, that day at school had only driven home just how alone he was, and just how desperate he was for… a friend.

Parents warned their children away from him, but even without that he was still known as the 'creepy, crazy kid' that saw things that didn't exist. Both of those things together only served to rob Naruto of any friends he might have had, and on top of that, children were cruel.

It's a sad truth of reality that children don't usually understand what their actions and words mean to others, that they can hurt others when they're not being hurt themselves. _Feeding_ this by specifically telling a child to avoid another, especially when you don't say why, can result in that child becoming very isolated from their peers.

Naruto accepted that he wasn't liked very much, and he had no friends, but that didn't mean he liked it. No, he absolutely hated it, he hated it when the other children made a game of 'run away from the monster', with Naruto being the 'monster'. It might have been a game to them, but it was a sad reality to him.

Now though, things might change, at least a little. These 'youkai' were grown ups, they were even more grown ups than the old people, they were that old! They didn't look at him with wariness or revulsion either, and they didn't move away from him too.

When he got to the shrine, his smile faded a little, neither Hinoe or Tsuyukami were. Had he really met them that morning, or had it been his imagination? Maybe it had been a joke to them, getting his hopes up and then laughing behind his back when he thought he might finally have a friend.

"Yo, Naruto, nice to see you here again."

Naruto's neck almost snapped with how quickly he looked up.

Sitting in the tree and lazing around was Tsuyukami, his masked face pointed his way as he waved at the young boy. Naruto's expression instantly shifted from depressed into a beaming smile. He hadn't imagined them! They weren't playing a trick on him!

"Hey, Tsuyukami, how are you?" Naruto called out, scrambling to climb up the tree with the yokai.

"Careful, Naruto, you don't want to fall from up here." Tsuyukami chided the child. "As for me, I'm wonderful. The weather is warm, the sun is bright, and Hana has left me some peaches as well. Here, have one for yourself." Tsuyukami tossed a peach to Naruto, who caught it easily. He looked at the peach, sniffed it, and then bit into it.

"It's good!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Aye, they always are." Tsuyukami agreed. "Hana has been bringing me peaches for years now, seeing her grow older is how I've been keeping track of time for decades now. Such a sweet girl she is, and she tells me about everything that goes on in the village as well."

"She sounds nice." Naruto said.

"Maybe you'll meet her one day, though she usually turns up here on the weekend." Tsuyukami. "I'm sure she'd be happy to meet you too."

"Maybe." Naruto murmured. "Most people don't really like me very much."

Tsuyukami sighed. "I am not too surprised by that. Those that can see us often lead unhappy lives, torn between two worlds. Remember, young Naruto, what you have is both a blessing and a curse. However, you can choose how you handle it. I've known those who've ignored us, and driven themselves to insanity. I've known others who've embraced us, and ended up eaten. The most successful are the ones who try and keep both worlds separate, but they face hardships of their own."

"So life is hard?" Naruto asked, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"For humans? Always." Tsuyukami answered. "There are things that make it worth the effort though, love, friends, joy, and so much more. We youkai envy humans for the enthusiasm and determination they show for the slightest things, while they envy us for our long lifespans that we do nothing with."

"What do you mean, you don't do anything?" Naruto wondered.

"Well, that's simple." Tsuyukami replied. "In their lifetime, a human will grow up, learning all kinds of skills, and then they will work hard to earn their own money. A blacksmith will forge many things, a carpenter will craft many more, and a teacher will instruct the next generation. They are always doing something, always driving themselves further. We youkai, however, laze about all day long. We don't need money, nor do we really need anything else, not even sleep. All youkai do are drink and make merry."

"Isn't having fun a good thing though?" Naruto persisted.

"In moderation, yes." Tsuyukami told him. "However, when all you know is how to have fun, it starts to lose all meaning. It becomes something you do because that is all you know, and all you care about… and it seems my words have gone right over your head, deary me. Then again, maybe we could have this conversation when you're older, eh, and see if it doesn't make some more sense?"

"Umm, o-kay?" Naruto hesitantly agreed, before looking around. "Um, Tsuyukami, where is Hinoe, is she not here too?"

"Not right now, she's not." Tsuyukami responded. "This is where I stay, and while she's always welcome to visit me, she lives elsewhere. Besides, she's off doing something right now, maybe she'll tell you about it when next she sees you, eh? Now, is there anything else you'd like to ask me?"

"Well, there's a few things actually." Naruto said, before he started to bombard the youkai with questions about anything and everything he could think of.

Tsuyukami cheerfully answered everything he could, quite happy to speak with this young man.

xxxxx

Hinoe was, in fact, actually speaking with Riou, the 'lord' of the forest amongst youkai. She was telling him about Naruto, and to say the least, Riou was curious. He'd always had a soft spot for humans, and to hear of a child with the sight within his 'domain' was both good and bad at the same time.

It was good because it was something that would draw youkai to the area, giving him command of numerous lesser youkai, not that he much cared for ruling over others. In fact, he let the youkai in his area do as they pleased, though he did ask that they refrain from needlessly killing humans.

Naruto being around was also bad, because when news spread, it would draw less pleasant youkai to the area as well, those that would want his power for themselves, and those that would want to consume him to become more powerful. Those youkai would challenge Riou, and he did not want his underlings to suffer because of that.

He resolved to meet with this human himself, and see just what sort of child this 'Naruto' was.

"And you say Benio was the first of mine he met?" Riou asked Hinoe, who nodded.

"Yes, she actually scared him all the way back to his orphanage." She confirmed. "However, he's also met myself and Tsuyukami, and he seems like quite the resilient brat. Given that the other children, and from what little I saw the adults too, avoid him like the plague, I'd have expected him to be far more depressing than he was."

"Children are often the toughest and most hardy of types." Riou mused. "They're at the age where they can become anything they wish to be, and will tend to bounce back up from anything that knocks them down. They're enthusiastic and energetic to an extreme degree."

"That doesn't explain the sheer level of power he possesses." Hinoe murmured. "It can't have been inherited, we'd have known if there was someone with that much spiritual power around. Besides that, he can see, and I thought that, if any of them had still existed, they would be off in the far east, not here."

"No, it doesn't explain that." Riou agreed. "Then again, how did humans originally come to possess the sight? We don't know the answer to that question either. Perhaps it ebbs and flows, and it is only now beginning to occur again. Maybe young Naruto was simply born in unique circumstances. It could be that the child is the result of some experiment or other, and being able to see us is merely a side effect of whatever was done to him."

"Experiments? Do you really believe the humans to be doing something like that?" Hinoe wondered, that was far from what she'd expect the human loving optimist to suggest.

A dark look crossed Riou's face. "I often wander the woods, and I have come upon several hidden laboratories in recent years. Inside, I have found many human corpses, in various stages of decay, and with various disfigurements as well. Just what the goal was, I could not say, and as I do not read the human language, I could not gain anything from the scattered notes in there either."

Hinoe frowned. "If there are experiments which would allow them to see us, that's rather concerning. Would you show me where these 'laboratories are? I can read the human language, so I might be able to find something useful, or at least informative, in there."

"Of course." Riou agreed. "Seeing us is the first step to sealing us away like they did the biju, and as much as I like humans, I have no desire to be forced to be a weapon for them, and even I know there are humans that would do just that to us."

Both youkai were silent for a moment, thinking about what depravities humans committed against each other.

Riou sighed. "Let's dispense with such a heavy topic. Whether or not this Naruto gained his sight naturally or not, he has it now, and it would be far better to deal with him while young, and while he knows nothing of Fuinjutsu. If he grew up terrified of youkai and learned how to seal them, things would quickly turn unpleasant for us."

"Deal with him?" Hinoe asked. "In what way? It almost sounds as if you wish to kill him."

"I don't." Riou corrected her. "However, while he is a child, he is easily influenced, and from what you've said, he doesn't have a very positive opinion of youkai, his interactions with you and Tsuyukami aside. If we can get him to look favourably on us now, he is unlikely to go on some sort of crusade against us when he's older, and has both the knowledge and power to destroy us."

Riou then smiled. "Besides, I'm always happy to make a new friend."

Hinoe scoffed. "You always are, you soft-hearted fool." She said, though there was no heat in her voice.

"How shall I be introduced to young Naruto then?" Riou asked.

"He goes past Tsuyukami's shrine every day on the way to and from school." Hinoe told him. "It might be best to introduce you tomorrow afternoon, and tell him that there's someone who'd like to meet him when he goes past on the morning."

"Then I will follow your advice." Riou agreed. "Now, do you wish to see those distasteful laboratories today?"

Hinoe sighed. "I might as well, it'll get it out of the way sooner this way."

"Then follow me then, the closest one I've found is rather deep in the forest and quite far from the trodden paths." Riou said as he began to lead Hinoe off between the trees.

xxxxx

"So, Naruto, you've asked me plenty, I think it's my turn." Tsuyukami said when Naruto had finally ran out of questions for him. "How about you tell me what you do at school all day long? Youkai don't have them, and I've never actually gone near one before."

"Umm, well, at school we learn basic stuff." Naruto replied. "We learn to read and write, we learn maths, and we learn about history as well." He frowned. "It's strange though, I thought history was about really old things, but we don't learn anything more than the last hundred years or so. Why is that?"

Tsuyukami laughed. "At a guess? I'd say it's because humans don't live very long. It's very rare for one of you to reach a hundred, so there's no one left who can tell you about before. Well, there's also the fact that humans fight and kill each other a lot, I imagine that your history is pretty bloody."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, we haven't learned about it yet, but the teacher did say we would be doing the three great shinobi wars, and that before the founding of the villages, people lived in clans that always fought with each other as well. He didn't say why though, do people just like to fight a lot?"

"I don't know." Tsuyukami replied. "Youkai fight quite a bit, but that's one on one to prove who's the stronger. We don't really fight 'wars', or even 'battles' much, we're too laid back for that. Living as long as we do, we tend to be relatively… 'mellow' I believe the word is. Though do be careful, Naruto, there _are_ youkai who are actively malicious as well, and if they find out about you, and they will one day, they will come after you. Your sight is a sign of great spiritual power, and there are those who would want that power for themselves."

"Okay." Naruto said, slightly disheartened by Tsuyukami's warning, though he did perk up when the youkai ruffled his hair.

"Cheer up, Naruto, your sight is also a good thing." He said. "Without it, would we be talking like this? No, you'd walk past this shrine and never see me, and I would never speak to you. Always remember, for every bad thing that happens, something good can come from it, even if it is just learning what not to do in a certain situation. 'Every cloud has a silver lining' I believe the humans say."

"Thanks, Tsuyukami." Naruto smiled at the youkai, who chuckled good naturedly at the blonde boy.

The two of them remained sitting in that tree for several hours, a novel experience for the usually physically active Naruto, but one he found himself enjoying quite a bit. Well, what he was enjoying was more likely the pleasant company of Tsuyukami, and the comfortable silence between the two of them.

Tsuyukami, for his part, kept one eye on Naruto, observing him, but his attention was also elsewhere. Looking towards the village proper, he saw the civilian population of Konoha milling around, some ninja mixed in as well. He also saw other ninja running across the rooftops, and in some cases up walls and into windows.

Tsuyukami had never paid much attention to humans outside of the ones who visited his shrine, but he did now. He wondered just how easy or difficult the things he saw ninja do were, and if Naruto would learn something like that in the future.

Of course, Naruto might not choose to become a ninja and remain a civilian, but Tsuyukami doubted he would do that. He didn't think Naruto felt very comfortable amongst the civilians, what with being the 'creepy, crazy kid', and there were ninja who were far more odd than the blonde was.

Tsuyukami recalled Hinoe complaining about some green-clad human with shiny hair that woke up very early every morning, and had often awoken her too when she'd had a rather bad hangover from drinking too much the night before. Gen and Sui had some strange stories as well, and they'd seen a lot from their statues that stood at the entrance to one of the training grounds.

Still, that was in the future, and while years meant very little to youkai, it was a very long time for a human, especially a young one, and Naruto could very well change his mind about whether or not to become a ninja a thousand times over before the time came to choose whether he wanted to take that path or not.

"It's getting late." Naruto eventually said. "I've gotta get back to the orphanage for supper and bedtime." He jumped out of the tree before turning back to Tsuyukami. "Will you be here tomorrow as well?" He asked.

"I should be." Tsuyukami replied. "I'm here most days, though I do wander off occasionally too. Still, I've got nowhere else to be, so yes, you'll see me here tomorrow."

"Bye then." Naruto said, waving as he walked away from the shrine.

"Farewell, young Naruto." Tsuyukami raised a hand and waved as well. "See you another time."

xxxxx

When Naruto got back to the orphanage, he was just in time to put his school bag under his bed, wash himself, and then get seated for supper. After that, he went to his room and pulled his bag out again. He had homework to do, though it was nothing complicated, just a handwriting exercise and some basic addition and subtraction.

What Naruto didn't notice was a white butterfly watching him from above the door frame.

Said butterfly silently flapped down to the ground, where it shifted into the form of a smirking Benio. Making sure to keep quiet, she sneaked up behind Naruto, who was focusing on his homework, and leaned over him, before whispering into his ear.

"Hello again, little morsel."

Naruto almost leapt out of his skin as he fell off his bed and crashed to the floor, his eyes wide and his heart beating a thousand beats a minute. His eyes then locked onto the mischievous expression of the woman who wore a butterfly ornament covering half of her face.

Benio frowned as she saw Naruto calm down upon catching sight of her. Now why would he do that? She'd expected him to flee at the sight of her, or maybe throw something, giving his reaction the other day, but no, seeing her had paradoxically calmed him down for some reason.

"What, not even going to try and run away?" She asked. "Not going to make this even a little fun for me?"

"Tsuyukami said you had too much respect to lord Riou to eat a human in his territory." Naruto told her.

Benio blinked in surprise. "That washed up weakling's been saying what about me now?" She questioned.

"He said that you were quite mischievous and cynical, but you really look up to lord Riou, and wouldn't do something to displease him." Naruto replied. "What does cynical mean?"

"It means I know just how selfish people really are." She responded. "Wait, that's not important, when did _you_ talk to Tsuyukami?" Benio demanded to know.

"I met him and Hinoe this morning, and I spent most of the afternoon with him." Naruto replied.

"And you didn't run away screaming like a little girl?" Benio raised her one visible eyebrow. "Those two are on a whole different level to the weak trash that hides amongst humans, and Hinoe herself is pretty damn powerful all by herself."

"They didn't seem that bad to me." Naruto said. "They were quite nice."

"And you said nature was pretty before too." Benio scoffed. "That 'prettiness' hides a lot of viciousness, brat. Do you want me to tell you _exactly_ how a spider traps its prey in its web, how they wrap them up, and then keep them around until their hungry? Do you want me to explain how spiders eat? How they dissolve their prey in their digestive juices and then suck them out?"

"I was calling you pretty." Naruto mumbled, his head hung low, and thus missed Benio's reaction to his words.

She actually jerked backwards in surprise, before she covered her mouth with one hand and held her side while she silently laughed at his words. A human calling her pretty? Yeah, that was a new one on her. Physical appearance didn't mean much to a youkai, and so she'd never even thought about whether she was attractive or not. Hell, 'she' wasn't exactly right either, youkai were mostly genderless anyway, regardless of how they appeared!

She regained control of herself after a few moments of silent laughter, but mirth still remained in her glimmer of her visible eye, and in the tilt of her lips. She regarded Naruto for a moment, before reaching out and messing up his hair. She had to hold back a laugh as he almost jerked out of her grasp.

'Not used to physical contact then.' Benio thought to herself. 'Not surprising really, an orphan with the sight, called crazy, and with even other kids keeping their distance isn't exactly going to grow up normal.'

"Stop doing that." Naruto frowned, not liking how Benio was messing with his hair.

Benio did it once more, before placing the palm of her hand on his forehead and pushing him backwards. She smirked at him as he righted himself and picked his homework up. She eyed him carefully and made note of what difference even one day could make to a human.

He seemed far less scared, but then again, she had been _actively_ trying to get a reaction out of him last time. He seemed calmer as well, and happier too. Hmm, given just how cheerful Tsuyukami was most of them time, maybe the kid had found a friend in the masked youkai, or at least someone he could talk to.

"So, brat, what are you doing?" Benio asked.

"My homework, and my name's Naruto, not 'brat'." He muttered.

"You're human and you'll die in a few decades. Until you do something to impress me, you're going to be 'brat' for the time being." Benio retorted.

"What would impress you?" Naruto asked.

"Aww, does the little brat like me?" Benio faked a blush. "I'm sorry, brat, but you're too young for me, and I'm pretty sure that you're too young to be thinking of things like that."

"What are you going on about?" Naruto grumbled, only understanding that Benio was mocking him somehow.

"You'll understand in a few years." Benio waved him off. "Until then, however, I can say _soo_ many things that will go right over your head."

"Do you have to?" Naruto huffed.

"Of course." Benio said, like it was the most logical thing ever. "Now that threatening to eat you is no longer an option, I'm forced to use other methods to frustrate and annoy you."

"Why do you have to annoy me at all?" Naruto complained.

"Because I find it quite entertaining, why else?" Benio shrugged. "It's not like I've got anything else to do with my time, is it now?"

Naruto slumped. "Does that mean you're going to be following me everywhere?"

"Well, I wasn't going to. I _was_ going to just find and annoy you several times a day." Benio admitted. "Now though, I think I will. It'll give me a front row seat to any blackmail material I might get my hands on, ne?"

"I just doomed myself, didn't I?" Naruto whined.

"Yes, brat, you did." Benio smirked.

xxxxx

The next morning, when Naruto sat down at the table for breakfast, everyone else in the orphanage had to take a second look, to make sure they were really seeing what they thought they were. Sitting on top of Naruto's blonde hair was a large, white butterfly, about twice the size of an adults palm.

Naruto tried waving the butterfly off, looking rather grumpy as he did so, but as soon as he stopped flailing around, it settled on his hair once again. That wasn't normal butterfly behaviour, and no one recognised it as a local breed of butterfly either. It was too large to be anything outside of the Forest of Death, and it didn't look lethal enough to survive there either.

"Um, Naruto… where did that butterfly come from?" One of the matrons asked the blonde child.

"It flew into my room last night and won't leave me alone." Naruto replied.

"O-kay then." The matron hesitantly said, mentally chalking this up to one more odd thing about the kyuubi jinchuuriki.

Naruto didn't say anything else as he ate breakfast, got his school stuff together and collected a packed lunch, but he felt all of the eyes focused on him, and he could hear the whispers as well. He didn't let it get to him though, at least now he knew what it was he was seeing, youkai, and not all of them were mean to him, even if Benio was proving her mischief by frustrating him right then.

After he'd gotten his morning ablutions out of the way, Naruto picked up his bag, slipped on a pair of black sandals, and headed straight out the door. While there were kids in Naruto's year, and even his class, in the orphanage, he always headed off earlier than anyone else did. After all, none of them wanted to be seen anywhere near him if they could help it.

As usual, Naruto's path took him past Tsuyukami's shrine, and he hurried along quicker than normal, hoping to see him, and possibly anyone else that might be there as well. Tsuyukami was the only youkai Naruto knew the location of, though Benio could likely point him in the right direction. Then again she would probably not do so or point him towards some other trickster youkai like herself.

As it turned out, Tsuyukami was there, like he usually was, and once again so was Hinoe. The blue-haired youkai did raise an eyebrow when she saw Benio nestled on Naruto's hair like she was, and her lips twitched upwards in a small smirk. Naruto felt Benio freeze still for a moment, and wondered why she had done that, not realising the glint in Hinoe's eyes meant she was already thinking up ways to use what Benio was doing as her own blackmail material.

"Good morning, Tsuyukami, Hinoe!" Naruto cheerfully greeted the two, and the two youkai couldn't help but feel the joy the blonde boy practically radiated at them. Both of them bid him a good morning as well, before Hinoe chose to address the unexpected addition to the morning.

"Good morning, Benio, as well." She smirked. "My, my, it seems your attitude has changed rather quickly. From scaring him witless to being so comfortable with him, I didn't realise your tastes ran so young. Ah, what would the others say when I tell them of this I wonder."

Benio turned back into her regular form, her cheeks tinted pink as she huffed at Hinoe. "It's nothing like that, you're imagining things. Since Tsuyukami told him that I wouldn't actually eat him, I had to find some other way to torment him, and annoying the brat is a good way to spend my time."

"Sure, keep saying that, maybe someone will be gullible enough to believe it." Hinoe retorted.

"Why, you-"

"Now, now, let's just all calm down." Tsuyukami interrupted Benio before she could get going. "Naruto will have to go to school soon, and we have a bit of news for him."

"You do?" Naruto asked.

"Another youkai wants to meet the brat?" Benio asked Tsuyukami, though she still glared at Hinoe.

"Yes, and one you are rather familiar with at that, Benio." Hinoe told her. "Lord Riou is interested in meeting Naruto himself, and will be waiting here with us after school is over with today."

"Lord Riou?" Naruto murmured, before turning to Benio. "Isn't he the one you respect a lot?"

Benio looked askance at Naruto. "Lord Riou is the local forest lord. He's one of the strongest youkai around, and his territory covers a large chunk of the woods around this village. He's a very important person with many underlings, and he is beloved by us all."

Tsuyukami nodded. "His territory and Lord Rokka's completely encircles your village." He said. "However, Rokka doesn't have as many underlings as lord Riou, and he is far less active as well. Both of them are rather friendly though, so you don't need to worry about either of them, and lord Riou in particular is known for being quite fond of humans."

"So he's a good guy then?" Naruto asked.

Hinoe smiled. "Yes, Naruto, lord Riou is a 'good guy', as you say, and you'll be meeting him this afternoon."

"Awesome!" Naruto cheered. "Wait, how will I know it's him?"

"He'll be with us, for one." Hinoe told him. "Benio could easily identify him too, and he is quite distinctive. He looks like a human with large white wings and has blue eyes and hair. He tends to wear white as well. I don't think you could mistake him for anyone else, so don't worry yourself over it."

"Now, shouldn't you be getting off to school?" Tsuyukami asked. "You don't want to be late, do you?"

"Bye then, see you later." Naruto called out, waving at the two of them as Benio transformed back into a butterfly and made herself comfortable on his hair.

That day at school, Naruto could hardly manage to keep himself still. He usually had trouble doing so, being as hyperactive as he was, but today he was even worse, because he would be meeting with a youkai _lord,_ an actual lord with actual underlings, and someone who was quite powerful if the way Benio reacted to his name was any indication.

Still, he kept himself under control as much as he could. He didn't want one of the teachers holding him back after school because of him not being able to keep still, they already criticised him every opportunity they could get. They never sabotaged him or anything, and if another kid did something wrong, they were punished for it, but they dug through all of Naruto's work, looking for the tiniest mistake to call him out on.

Truth be told, he'd actually learnt more by them doing that than if they'd simply ignored him like most people do. That was something to rub in their faces when he was older and successful!

For now though, he was simply counting down the time until he met with Riou.


	3. Resulting Actions

AN: Chapter three is here now, and it's the end of the 'prologue' as it were. Next chapter will start Naruto's troubles with youkai before his graduation, though while I intend to draw a lot of inspiration from Natsume's trouble with youkai, any suggestions that you guys can give would be welcome, any situations you can see Naruto getting in, or any repercussions of his actions. Once again, I state that there's a forum topic for this story here: topic/139203/149040634/1/#149159009 There's also a link on my profile to my forum if that's not working for whatever reason.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 3 – Resulting Actions

Riou arrived at Tsuyukami's shrine three hours after midday, shortly before Naruto was to pass by. Tsuyukami casually tossed him and Hinoe a peach each, the masked youkai always seemed to have a never-ending supply of them courtesy of that 'Hana' woman he mentioned from time to time.

"So one more time, I will recognise Naruto by…?" Riou asked, glancing at Hinoe.

"He's a blue-eyed blond with whisker-like birthmarks on his cheeks." She told him. "Oh, and Benio might be resting on his head as well, she was this morning."

"Benio, eh?" Riou chuckled. "I wouldn't have thought her the type, she's never been particularly fussed about humans before."

"She claims that's she's hanging around so she can annoy him." Tsuyukami added his input. "I think it's a bit of that, a bit of boredom, and quite a bit of it being a novelty having a sighted human so close by."

"I can see the appeal." Riou nodded. "Now, do you either of you have any advice on how to approach this matter?"

Hinoe hummed thoughtfully for a moment. "Naruto's a cheerful kid, not a bad bone in his body, so intimidation and aggression is definitely not the right way to go about it. However, given what humans are like, violence is almost inevitable, so offering to help look after him might be a good idea, or at least helping him to take care of himself. It'll build up a good rapport at least."

"Is there anything we even _could_ teach him if we went with that option?" Riou asked. "We're not ninja, we don't possess fancy techniques, and our physical fights are more to do with strength and speed than technique."

"Youkai are rather good with illusions and curses though." Hinoe commented. "All it would require for him to learn how to do it would be to separate the spiritual part of his chakra from the rest of it. Besides, I have a few scrolls with some old youkai techniques in he might possibly find useful against other humans."

It is important to note here that youkai did not use elemental techniques. Primarily, this was because to use them would require them to convert their spiritual power into an element, and that was rather pointless and wasteful when it was raw spiritual power that was most effective against them. Therefore, because it's fairly useless, none of them bothered with it, even if they were capable of using such techniques.

"That sounds suspiciously like the sort of things a fighter would be interested in, do you really think he will choose to be a ninja?" Riou wondered. "From what you've said, he doesn't have the right temperament to be one."

"He's an orphan." Tsuyukami decided to be the one to answer this time. "There aren't many options open to orphans, and on top of that, most people seem on edge or wary of him, if not hateful, so that closes more doors. Where would he gain an apprenticeship? Where would employ him? Given that about three fifths of the village is dedicated to the military as well, how many options does he really have?"

"Beyond that, it seems almost a requirement for ninjas to have some strange quirk or habit." Hinoe commented. "His 'sight' would fit in well with the exercise nut who runs around the village every morning, and I've heard some rather strange stories about some even more… 'unique' individuals who wear that metal plate on their heads."

"Should we nudge him in that direction then?" Riou mused. "The earlier he makes a decision, the sooner he can start preparing for it. I am sure being a mercenary for hire is quite a demanding job, and not something to be taken lightly."

"The decision is ultimately his to make." Tsuyukami reminded them. "However, I do believe that being a ninja would make Naruto the happiest, and it would probably be the best for him too. He's already an outcast from the civilians, so why not try a different group?"

Riou sighed. "Very well. Assuming that Naruto really is as good-hearted as he sounds, we shall endeavour to direct his attention towards becoming a ninja, but in doing so we will also become responsible for ensuring he has the best possible chance at surviving just such a profession, both physically and mentally."

"Understood." Tsuyukami agreed. "Though there's not much I could teach him myself."

"A child needs more than teachers." Hinoe countered. "Become his confidant, a friend if you will. You like making new friends just as much as lord Riou does, and beyond that, perhaps you could introduce him to the kappa or kogitsune, meeting childish youkai such as them would probably be good for him."

"Enough, you two, I believe young Naruto is here." Riou interrupted them before Tsuyukami could say anything back to Hinoe, and all three youkai looked towards where a blonde boy with a butterfly on his head was indeed approaching them.

"Hello, Naruto!" Tsuyukami called out cheerfully, waving at the blonde.

"Hey, Tsuyukami!" Naruto waved back. "Hello, Hinoe!"

"Hello, little Naruto." Hinoe smiled at him. "We have someone to introduce to you here, like we told you about this morning."

"Hello." Naruto greeted the winged youkai. "You're lord Riou, right? I'm Naruto Uzumaki, it's nice to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well." Riou replied. "Hinoe and Tsuyukami have spoken of little else since yesterday, and I found myself curious about you."

"You want to know about me?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, I do. Shall we walk?" With Naruto's agreement, he and the blonde child walked beside each other into the trees, only Benio, still resting on Naruto's head, accompanying them.

After a few moments of silence, Riou spoke again. "I am curious about you, Naruto, very much so. There was once a time where those with the sight were rare, but not impossible to find. Now, you are the only confirmed person who can see us, and the only other one we know of with the potential is a priestess in Demon Country. I'm sure you can see why I might want to know more about you."

"I'm weird, different." Naruto's head drooped at that.

"I will not deny that you are different, everyone is, especially youkai." Riou comforted the boy. "However, I feel a need to warn you about the future ahead of you. As I'm sure you've already heard, having the sight is both a blessing and a curse. You have the opportunity to clearly see what no other human can, to become part of something wonderful

"However, as much as I may wish it were, the world of youkai is not some paradise for all. There _will_ be those who would seek to use you as a tool, or make you their thrall. There will also be those who wish to devour you, your sight being proof of you having high spiritual power." Riou sighed.

Naruto frowned at that, not fully understanding every word Riou said, but getting the gist of what he meant. "There's going to be monsters coming for me, ones who want to eat me… and th-thrall me?" He stumbled over the unfamiliar word, not entirely sure what it meant.

"A thrall is someone who is akin to a slave." Riou explained. "And yes, there will be those who will want to eat you. It will be impossible to keep your abilities a secret forever, and sooner or later, news will spread beyond my own forest, drawing foreign youkai here."

"I'm sorry." Naruto apologised. "I didn't mean to make any trouble for you."

"Think nothing of it, Naruto." Riou waved off the apology. "While, yes, news of you will cause some stirring amongst youkai, having you frequent my domain also grants me a certain level of status amongst my peers." Seeing Naruto's confusion, he chuckled. "Don't worry about it, the ways of politics, both human and youkai, are complex, and not for children to worry about."

"So what should I do now?" Naruto asked.

"That is something only you can decide, Naruto." Riou responded. "However, I can give you some advice of my own. Your future will involve conflict, either with youkai or with others, and so I will suggest you seek to learn how to protect yourself. To that end, I want to know whether you wish to be a ninja or not?"

"The old man always has really awesome stories about ninjas!" Naruto exclaimed. "They can do all sorts of cool things, and they can go all sorts of places! Being a ninja sounds really cool, they get to save princesses, and fight dragons, and so much more!"

"Which old man told you that?" Riou asked.

"The one in the funny hat, the Hokage." Naruto replied. "He comes around every now and then and talks to me and some of the others."

Riou sighed. "I guess becoming a ninja is inevitable then." However, he wondered why exactly the village leader bothered with this one child in particular. "There are a few things that you need to know though, a few truths you need to be aware of before you think about being a ninja."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"While it is true that a ninja may 'save' a princess, the stories you were told are likely very rare. There are simply too many ninjas and too few princesses who need saving for it to happen all the time." Riou told him. "Ninjas are for more likely to have to save diplomats and the like, or maybe some more minor nobility."

"So they save less important people?" Naruto wondered.

"Yes, but even then that sort of mission probably isn't too common." Riou cautioned him. "Ninjas are mercenaries, they fight for money, so depending on the needs of people, you might end up doing very different missions to the ones you have been told about."

"What sort of missions would we be doing?" Naruto questioned Riou.

"Well, I think escort missions are rather common." Riou racked his mind to think of examples. "Erm, likely for merchants who are wary of bandits on the roads. You might get delivery missions as well, and possibly search and destroy missions if bandits or raiders attack somewhere. You might get investigation missions, where something has happened, or tracking missions if someone or something is lost."

"That sounds really complicated." Naruto said.

"It is, as all things are." Riou told him. "Aside from that, there are various parts of the village which involve ninjas as well. I believe the hospital staff also have some level of training, and the administration for the village leader, the teachers will be able to look after themselves, and so many more will. On top of that, I believe the village also has a number of ninja 'clans', all of which at least have some level of training. It's a dangerous world we live in, it's better to be prepared for it than not."

"B-but what can I do?" Naruto burbled quietly.

Riou looked down at Naruto and saw tears had started to gather at the corners of his eyes. Ah, he had forgotten that he was speaking to a child, one only half a decade old at that, and not someone older who could understand the world better. Ignoring how Benio was still present, Riou knelt down and wrapped his arms around Naruto in a hug.

Feeling the boy freeze in place, Riou continued on as comfortingly as he could. "Naruto, I don't mean to scare you, far from it in fact. I just want you to know what sort of problems you may face in the future. The more you know now, the better you can prepare for it, no?"

"But how would I prepare?" Naruto asked, his voice muffled by Riou's arms and wings.

"You learn." Riou told him. "Apply yourself in your lessons during the day, take all you can from them, and on the afternoons… well, youkai may not be ninja, but that doesn't stop you learning a few things from us. Illusions is something we are naturally gifted at, and while there are few who do so, we _can_ manipulate energy if we so choose.

"Actually, let me give you your first lesson. Come, sit with me." Riou took a seat at the base of a tree, Naruto sitting beside him. "Now, everything that happens can be broken down into three things. There's an input, a process, and an output. In other words, something is put in, something happens to it, and something comes out of it.

"Now, the most common thing used as an input is energy, whether that be the spiritual power we use as youkai, or the chakra that ninja use." Riou explained. "Now, can you think of what the three most easily used outputs are?"

Naruto frowned in thought. "Fire?" He asked. "Ninja can spit fire can't they?"

Riou chuckled. "Good guess, and your example displays all three things, but an element wasn't what I was thinking of. Would you like to guess again?"

"Wind?" Naruto tried.

"Close yet again, but not quite what I wanted." Riou said. "The three simplest expressions of energy are motion, heat, and light. Wind can blow things along, and fire provides both heat and light." Riou held up a hand, and after a few moments of concentration, a ball of blue-white light hovered over his palm.

"Here we have light." He then dismissed it, before placing his palm against Naruto's cheek, which proceeded to warm up far quicker than was normal. "Here we have heat." He took his hand away from Naruto before pointing it at a low hanging tree branch. A burst of wind blew several leaves off the tree. "There we have motion."

"That was awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, his earlier tears already forgotten. "Can you teach me how to do that? Can you? Can you?"

Riou laughed lightly. "Calm yourself, Naruto, and yes, I can teach you. However, you may wish to ask Hinoe for lessons instead of myself, she is as close to a scholar as youkai get, and she knows far more than the basic tricks I can do. The only reason I am lord of the forest and not her is simply down to the fact I am stronger than she is. If it ever came to a fight between us, though, I am far from certain about my victory over her."

"Would she teach me?" Naruto wondered aloud.

Benio, finally having enough, transformed back into her usual form and snorted. "Hinoe would _love_ having a brat to teach. Like lord Riou said, she is as close to a scholar as we have, and she would delight in having someone to talk to about all of those musty scrolls she keeps."

"Always so quick to denigrate, Benio." Riou sighed. "That mouth of yours will get you into trouble you can't get out of one day."

"What does denigrate mean?" Naruto asked curiously.

"It means she has a sharp tongue, always ready to insult someone." Riou told him. "She's a good sort though, and her words hide who she truly is, a good and loyal youkai."

"L-Lord Riou!" Benio stammered, her cheeks red.

The winged youkai chuckled. "It is true, Benio."

"B-But that's no reason to..." She trailed off.

Naruto gave her a look. "Are you alright, Benio?" He asked her.

Benio huffed, before grabbing Naruto and rubbing her knuckles into his scalp. "I'm fine, brat, but you're not going to be so if you ask me that again!"

"Careful with your new friend, he's not as durable as we are." Riou chastised the butterfly youkai.

"Of course he's not, humans are such fragile things." Benio retorted. "As easily snapped as a twig and alive only as long as a youkai's single breath."

Riou watched as Benio let out a yelp when Naruto's flailing legs caught her in the shins, making her drop him and hop about on one leg for a moment. The two of them seemed to forget he was there as Benio proceeded to chase Naruto all around the forest and nearby clearing.

Riou smiled.

It looked like the next few years were going to be quite interesting.

xxxxx

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, frowned in worry and concern. Over the last few months he'd noticed a change in one particular inhabitant of his village. He'd kept as close of an eye on Naruto as he could, both because of his own fondness for the blonde, as well as believing it his duty to his successor cum predecessor, the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze, Naruto's father.

From what he'd heard, the boy had thrown himself into his studies at school, learning as much as he could as quickly as he could, and while his diligence was commendable, his social life had suffered even more than it already had. Not that Naruto really _had_ a social life.

Even before Naruto's change in behaviour, there was no one really who the small boy interacted with. His status as a jinchuuriki alone scared a lot of people away from him. Civilians knew virtually nothing of the workings of ninjutsu or genjutsu, and the art of fuinjutsu was even more mystical to them, and as was human nature, they did not trust what they did not comprehend.

On top of that, Naruto's frequent tales of monsters only he seemed able to see had further served to isolate the boy, and even those that might have given him a chance otherwise were driven away. Finding no friends among the children his age, Hiruzen knew that Naruto had begun to spend his time amongst the trees and the animals therein.

Now, however, Naruto rarely left the woods. He ate in the orphanage, learned at school, and disappeared amongst the trees for the rest of the day, and often nights. It was becoming more and more rare for him to even come back to the orphanage to sleep, and he'd heard that the matrons were wondering if he still counted as being under their care.

Hiruzen… had a sort of answer to that.

Minato had had an apartment when he was a genin, one he'd kept up on payments for as he'd advanced up the ranks. Even when he and Kushina had bought a house together – one that had been destroyed by the kyuubi – he'd still had that apartment, and had in fact bought it rather then kept renting it.

Perhaps it was time for Naruto to move out of the orphanage, and into his father's apartment. No one would remember whose it had been, so they weren't likely to discover the connection between the two blondes, and as Minato was now dead, the apartment was technically now Naruto's.

However, could Naruto be self-sufficient enough to look after himself? The boy had no knowledge of how to cook or clean, and there was the matter of having to pay bills, namely water and electricity. Heating wasn't much of a problem in Konoha, as the land of fire in general had very mild winters.

Hiruzen sighed. Glancing at the stack of paperwork on his desk, he then looked back at the crystal ball he had set on his desk. Grumbling about paperwork being able to wait, he tried to get a lock on Naruto using his Telescope Technique Jutsu. However, it proved difficult.

Whenever Naruto disappeared into the forest, he had quite a bit of difficulty finding him, and he often had to manually scan the forest a section at a time to find the boy. It was strange though, if he didn't know better he'd say that something was interfering with his jutsu, like the trees themselves were shielding Naruto from whomever might be trying to find him.

Hiruzen despaired over Naruto ever gaining a friend within the village. It seemed to him that, even if he hadn't left the village, they had driven him out. Thankfully, the few times he'd seen him, the blonde had still been his cheerful self, but there were a few more oddities that had cropped up.

Hiruzen had, of course, subtly encouraged him to become a shinobi. Naruto _was_ a jinchuuriki, and there was no way he could become a civilian with a beast like that sealed inside of him, and as much as Hiruzen was fond of Naruto, he was also the Hokage, and that meant making tough decisions.

Naruto's enthusiasm for the tales he'd told him had eased his mind about Naruto being made a shinobi, and yet… recently he'd been asking some very odd questions. Rather than heroic tales of rescuing princesses, Naruto had asked to hear about the most recent shinobi war, of Sakumo Hatake, and of Hanzo the salamander. Naruto must have been reading quite a bit of Konoha's history to come across those two names.

Nevertheless, Hiruzen had indulged him, and told Naruto of two of the strongest men he'd known. He'd told the boy of how Sakumo had valued his comrades' lives above that of a completed mission, and of his proficiency in kenjutsu, as well as the other ninja arts. He regaled the boy with tales of Hanzo's strength, his strong bond with his summons, and the way he wished for peace despite being so accomplished at waging war.

Naruto's questions had then taken an even stranger twist. He'd asked what sort of missions ninjas of different ranks undertook, and Hiruzen had told him. C rank missions were the most common for all ranks, aside from fresh genin who had to contend with D ranks. Occasionally a chunin team would take a B rank, while Jonin would take A ranks every now and then.

He'd told Naruto about the different divisions as well, the cryptology department, the administrative group, the medical organisation, the hunters, and so on and so forth. Part of Hiruzen was actually quite pleased that someone was taking such an interest in ninja that wasn't purely based around field shinobi teams, and it spoke well of Naruto's developing mind.

Still, something seemed… off about Naruto, something was different, but what it was he could not even guess. Naruto at least seemed happier than he had before, but that did only so much to quell the unease that Hiruzen felt. That unease did anything but abate whenever he caught sight of that butterfly that had spent the last few months riding around on top of Naruto's head.

That was not natural behaviour for a butterfly, and he'd wondered for a time if it was a summon. Naruto having formed a contract with a summon clan would explain a number of things, including his questions about some of the famous ninja he'd asked about.

It would also explain why his jutsu was so often unable to find Naruto, it had a limited range after all, and the summon realm was not inside of that. If Naruto was reverse summoned by the butterflies every day, it would make sense that he couldn't find him, and Hiruzen would not discourage him!

Well, he might insist that Naruto spent more time in the village, he didn't want the boy growing apart from humans, but that in itself was difficult. What friends did Naruto have amongst humans? Himself, the Hokage? He could only devote so much time per month to one boy, and that was precious little. If he made friends amongst the summons, would he ever want to come back to the human world?

So far, it seemed Naruto was quite happy coming to school, and indeed his focus on learning and his drive of self-improvement was greater than it had ever been before, but he wasn't staying around after school to play with children his own age. Even during lunch time, he sat apart from others.

Perhaps when Naruto joined the Ninja Academy in three years he would find people he could get along with. After all, ninja had weird habits and wouldn't discriminate against him because of them, and on top of that, the clan children wouldn't be as wary of him as the civilian ones would, their parents having a greater understanding of fuinjutsu, and just what a jinchuuriki actually was, and therefore wouldn't warn their children away from him.

Yes, that's what he would do, wait and hope for the best.

If things got worse though, then… perhaps he would do something else.

xxxxx

For Naruto, the past few months had been absolutely brilliant!

Like Riou had suggested, he worked hard in his lessons at school, and while the teachers didn't like him, they had not sabotaged him, allowing him to learn more and more as quickly as he could manage. He'd also asked Hinoe to teach him things, and she had agreed as well, though lessons with her were very different to the ones in school.

The first thing she tried to teach was how to separate his spiritual power from his physical power. Chakra, what naturally flowed through his body, was a mixture of both, but all of the things Hinoe could teach him would only work with one of them.

It had taken him two full months to be able to do as Hinoe asked, and even then it was a very difficult thing for Naruto to do. Not to mention that it just felt so _wrong_. Humans weren't purely spiritual creatures like youkai were, and every time he practised what Hinoe taught him, while it did get easier, it felt like he was twisting something inside of himself.

Now though, now that he was capable of doing it quickly enough for Hinoe to judge it usable, even if it was 'only barely', she was going to teach him the next step in his learning, actually _doing_ something with that energy he'd managed to call up!

She sat him down next to herself, and drew a design on a torn off section of a scroll.

"Right, Naruto, what I've drawn is a very basic seal, and it is composed of three parts. Would you care to take a guess as to what each part is?" Hinoe asked him.

Remembering what Riou had told him several months back, Naruto answered her. "Is it input, process, and output?"

Hinoe blinked in surprise. "That is correct, Naruto. Here, let me show you." She indicated one part of the seal. "This is where you push your spiritual power in. Take note of the shape of it, how everything is focused inwards from the outside of the symbol, _pulling_ things into the middle." She indicated the next part. "This is the process. Notice how it changes, how one side _becomes_ the other gradually." She then pointed at the third section. "Now see how the symbol here is expanding, pushing outwards from the middle. Do you see it?"

"I do." Naruto confirmed. "So what does the seal actually do?"

"Not much right now, it is incomplete. Can you guess what is missing?" Hinoe asked.

Naruto didn't know and told her as much.

"Never mind, Naruto, I'm surprised you could tell me as much as you did." Hinoe ruffled his hair with one hand. "Now, what is missing is the binding part of the seal, what will transform it from a series of disconnected symbols into something that actually does something."

With that, Hinoe traced a circle around the symbols and channelled a small amount of her own power into it. The paper writhed and twisted for a moment as the symbols seemingly faded and lines of ink spread around the whole thing. Eventually it settled, and the paper was left with two circles on it, one on each side. One circle was filled in with ink, making it black, while the other was just an outline.

"Right, Naruto, pass your hand here." The blonde obeyed the blue-haired youkai, who put the paper against the palm of his hand, before tying it on properly.

"Now, call up some of your spiritual power, and push it into the circle against your palm." She told him.

Naruto did that. Being as still and as silent as he could, he reached inside himself and quickly found his chakra. Visualising it as a rope made up of many different strands, some light blue, almost white, and others a darker, almost green, blue, he began to try and pry a few of the lighter coloured strings away from it.

Just like every other time he did this, Naruto felt the uncomfortable sensation of separating his yin from his yang, but he nevertheless managed to do so. Carefully guiding the blue-white strands of spiritual power along his arm and out of the palm of his hand, Naruto opened his eyes in time to see a bush near them be stripped of some leaves as a blast of wind shot out of the other side of the seal on his hand.

"Well done, Naruto, you did it exactly right." Hinoe congratulated him. "The seal transformed your energy into motion and expelled it on the other side of itself. Motion is considered one of the safest energy transformations to practise, and also requires the least control."

"Awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, a wide grin splitting his face in two.

"Oh, don't get too far ahead of yourself, Naruto, we've got a _lot_ of work to do before we move on any further than this." Hinoe chastised him. "We need you to call up your power a lot faster, and you're going to have to learn how to control this before we move onto anything else."

"How long will that take?" Naruto whined.

"Oh, I'd say a good few months before we can safely move onto light." Hinoe told him. "We don't want to blind anyone after all, and light requires more control than motion does. A few months after that and we might be able to safely move onto heat as well. You've got a very long way to go yet, Naruto, but don't despair, you've taken your first steps, and they're amongst the most important."

Naruto smiled at her, earning himself another ruffle of his hair.

"Now let's try it again, and try to be quicker about it. We can worry about control when you can call up your power within a second or less." Hinoe commanded him. "If you get it down well enough, I'll let you go see the kappa again, Tsuyukami tells me they want to see you again, and I know you had fun with them last time."

Naruto smiled and got back to work.

Truly, fortune was smiling on him now.


	4. First Signs

AN: Another chapter already! Well, yes, it is. With this story being as new as it is, I have plenty of ideas to put down, and it needs something to kick start it so it doesn't languish on my hard drive, abandoned. Here we have the first of Naruto's childhood adventures with youkai, and they'll be several little 'arcs' of this. After that, the next arc would be Naruto's Academy days, and then we move onto Genin stuff. However, it's not going to be anything like canon. For one, he won't have Kakashi as a sensei, and he won't be on a team with the traditional team seven, though that might change in the future, depending on how things go.

Forum link is on my profile or use this: topic/139203/149040634/1/#149279336

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 4 – First Signs

It was early October now, and Naruto would be six in a few days. It had been almost half a year since Naruto had first met Benio and the other youkai, and the blonde boy was very happy. He'd applied himself in his lessons and was advancing rapidly on the human side of things.

He'd memorised all of the Hiragana alphabet, and because it was a phonetic lettering system, all he'd had to do after that was learn more words, which he did. Kanji was another matter though, and while he was making progress, it was nowhere near as easy as other things he was learning.

Speaking of other things he was learning, Hinoe still had him on the same exercise she'd had him doing for a while now. While he could now call upon his spiritual power in around a second when he was calm and relaxed, he had trouble doing so when he couldn't focus on it, such as when he was dodging balls that the kappa threw at him, the childish youkai treating his 'training' as a sort of game.

His control also slipped when he wasn't focused, and the blast he fired was sometimes strong enough to knock an unsuspecting Riou off his feet – which Naruto had apologised profusely for – or it was weak enough to not even rustle the leaves in a bush.

Still, being able to do something awesome like fire blasts of force from his hands was amazing to Naruto, especially when Hinoe had copied the seal she'd used onto a pair of fingerless gloves that Naruto had taken to wearing all the time. They were black, like his shirt, with the word youkai on the back, written in the youkais' own language!

That was one of the other things that Naruto had been learning, the written form of the youkai language. While they spoke Japanese – or at least what sounded like Japanese to Naruto's ears – their written language was totally different, and while Naruto could somehow naturally read it, writing it was another matter.

It was useful though, because it was what all of the seals Hinoe knew was based in, unlike human seals which had a Kanji base to them, and were structured completely differently to youkai seals. Naruto wanted to learn human seals as well, but unfortunately he didn't have access to any way of learning them. He'd have to wait until he was a genin to have access to even basic stuff for ninjas, beyond the academy grade books.

Aside from the writing the youkai used and controlling his spiritual power, the only other thing that Naruto was learning from them right then was what Hinoe called 'alchemy', which was the mixing of ingredients and spiritual power to produce something useful.

It sounded amazing to him that he could brew potions that could heal people, cure illnesses, or even do something crazy like allow someone to breathe underwater or turn invisible! Of course, before he could do _anything_ like that, he first had to know what reagents he was working with.

To that end, he'd started putting together a notebook of everything he learned in these lessons. On each page, he'd have the name of an ingredient, its positive and negative effects, how it could be used, and if he could get hold of a bit of it, a preserved sample as well. So far, he mostly had different parts of different plants in there, but his notes also mentioned the different uses of things like blood, both youkai and human, as well as insects, animal bones, and other things.

Hinoe had said that, for his birthday, she would watch over him as he brewed his first potion. Granted, it was only going to be a mild fortifying draught, and wouldn't do much more than make him slightly faster and stronger for a few hours, but that was still amazing by itself.

He was really looking forward to that, but for now, he had school to get to.

xxxxx

Splash!

Sputtering and cold, Naruto's eyes flew open as he shot up. Shaking his now soaked hair and wiping the water out of his eyes, Naruto pouted at the small group of kappa around him, as well as Benio who was cackling away in a tree.

"Come on, brat, your school starts in two hours, and these guys want to play with you before you go." Benio called out to him.

Naruto stood up and looked at the tree he'd spent the night under. He only really slept at the orphanage now when the weather was too bad for a human to sleep through the night. He grumbled to himself about it being too early in the morning, before spinning on the spot and running at the nearest kappa with his arms reaching forwards.

With a delighted laugh, the kappa began running away from the blonde boy and towards the small lake where they 'lived'. Chasing them the whole way, Naruto also let out a happy laugh, this being something he hadn't been able to do before meeting the local youkai, what with other children not being friends with him.

When they got to the lake, the kappa dived right in, followed immediately by Naruto, who had been taught to swim by the kappa themselves. They spent more than half an hour swimming around in the lake, playing an unusual form of tag, though who exactly was 'it' was up for debate.

"Hey, hey, Naruto!" One of the kappa called out when Naruto got out of the water to get ready for school. "We heard a rumour about a strong water youkai being seen a couple of miles away, and we were thinking of going to see if the rumours are true. You want to come with us?"

"I've got school now, and my lessons with Hinoe after that, but if you can wait that long then sure, it sounds great." Naruto replied.

"Sure, we'll wait." A kappa replied. "We were going to ask one of the stronger youkai to come with us anyway, in case there was trouble. Maybe lazy Madara will even go with us if we can find enough sake to bribe him with, or something sweet."

"Madara, who's he?" Naruto asked, not recognising the name, and by now he'd met most of the local youkai.

"He's an inugami, and he's really powerful, but all he does is sleep and drink." One of the other kappa told him. "He snagged some stuff off a human merchant's wagon before, and he loves… er, what's it called, manju?"

"I've never had it before." Naruto admitted. "But I think that's what it's called."

"Hey, hey! That's an idea." One of the kappa said. "Manju is a human food, so maybe Naruto can get some for us to bribe Madara with!"

"Sorry, guys, but I don't have any money." Naruto apologised.

"Money?" One of the kappa asked. "You mean those round bits of metal with human writing on them?"

"You also get ryo bills, but yeah, those are coins." Naruto answered them.

"Humans drop them and leave them lying around all over the place!" The kappa exclaimed. "We have a plan! While Naruto is at school, we'll go and collect all of the lost and forgotten coins we can. Then Naruto can buy manju for Madara, and we can go see what's going on with these rumours!"

Without another word, the group of kappa charged headlong towards the village, leaving Naruto to wonder what the hell just happened.

"Are they going to spend all day looking for loose change?" He wondered.

He shook his head. It wasn't important, and he had to get ready for school anyway.

xxxxx

The school teacher gave Naruto an odd look as she saw his eyes, once again, focus on something outside of the window, but when she looked herself, she didn't see anything. Maybe it was a ninja doing their roof-hopping thing or something, it would make sense for Naruto to see that, being a fighter was in his blood after all.

Oh, Akiko recognised the name Uzumaki, she definitely did. She remembered the red-haired ninja woman quite clearly, and if someone actually _looked_ at Naruto then they would see that he had the same shaped face she did. In fact, he looked a lot like her aside from the hair and eye colour.

That was why she didn't give him as hard of a time as she heard some of the other teachers did. While he was an orphan with no parents, she thought it far more likely that he was the son of Kushina Uzumaki, and probably one of the Yamanaka ninjas – they were mostly blondes – rather than a demonic fox forced into human form with its memories erased, or whatever the current theory was.

In fact, Akiko was actually secretly rather proud of her blonde student. The way he dove into learning everything he could really impressed her, and she found herself occasionally slipping a slightly more advanced textbook into the ones she placed on his desk, and adding an extra sheet or two of homework for him to complete, which he always did. With his determination and drive, he was going to go far in life, whatever he decided to do with himself.

She saw Naruto's eye twitch again, and once more glanced outside the window, completely missing the kappa running about the place with a bag full of loose change.

xxxxx

At lunch time, Naruto sat apart from the children, took his lunch out of his bag, and put Benio, in butterfly form, on his knee. As he ate his lunch, he wondered just how much money the kappa would have managed to gather by the time he would finish his lessons with Hinoe.

"Hey, Benio, I didn't think of this, but maybe the manju place won't serve me properly. Can you transform into some random civilian and buy the manju for us?" Naruto asked.

"What's in it for me, brat?" Benio asked.

"Some of the manju, maybe?" Naruto shrugged. "You saw as well as I did just how much money the kappa seem to have collected. That'll get us a fair number of manju, and this 'Madara' won't know the difference between however many we give him and how many we bought."

"Hmm, tempting." Benio mused. "I've never had this manju stuff either, but if Madara likes it so much, then maybe it's worth a try."

"Do you know Madara then?" Naruto asked.

"I do, and he's possibly even more powerful than lord Riou." Benio told him.

"Really?" Naruto's eyes glittered at that. "I thought Riou was super powerful."

"Well, he is compared to the small fry." Benio admitted. "However, as a lord amongst youkai, he's actually on the lower end of the scale. Rokka is more powerful than he is, and so is Misuzu. Madara doesn't actually rule over anyone, so he's not a lord, but that doesn't stop him being really powerful anyway."

"Why doesn't he rule over anyone if he's that powerful?" Naruto frowned.

"Why doesn't Hinoe? She's about on the same level as Riou." Naruto then saw what it would look like if a butterfly attempted to shrug. "Madara's also… a bit grumpy, and with his laziness, there's not many that really want him as a lord. As he's never really bothered trying to rule over anyone, he's kind of… just there really. He's not part of Riou's underlings, but he lives nearby anyway, so he sort of is and isn't counted amongst us."

"Okay then." Naruto shrugged. "So, will you buy the manju in my place?"

Benio sighed. "Fine, I'll possess someone and buy some, but I'll snag one or two myself just so you know!"

"With how much I saw the kappa have been collecting, I think we'll have plenty to go around." Naruto told her.

"Very well then." Benio agreed. "While you are at your lessons with Hinoe, I will purchase these manju you and the kappa want to bribe Madara with. Also, I shall accompany you as you investigate these rumours of a strong youkai."

Naruto snorted. "Wouldn't have it any other way, Benio, you've barely left my side since I met you."

The blonde continued to eat his lunch while chatting quietly with the butterfly youkai, but his thoughts were focused on what he and the kappa were going to be up to later, and just what this 'Madara' person was like.

xxxxx

After school was over with, Naruto headed to where he knew Hinoe would be waiting for him while Benio went off to find where all of the kappa were so she could buy the manju they needed.

When he got to where Hinoe was waiting for him, Naruto was surprised to see that she had a new scroll out that he didn't recognise. Normally she had the one that she taught him the 'force' technique from, so he could check up on it when he felt himself getting frustrated with his progress. This one, even if he couldn't see much of it, was a different one.

Hinoe tossed something small and round to him, which he caught. When he took a look at it, he found it was a wooden ball, about the size of a tennis ball, with symbols cut into the surface of it. Unlike his gloves, which had three symbols and a binder, this one was unbound with five.

"Tell me what you can work out of that seal." Hinoe told him.

Naruto took another look at it before answering. "Well, there's the input part of it here, then two symbols I don't recognise. After that is one that looks like the changing symbol that my gloves use, but different, and lastly there's an output symbol, but that's also different to the one on my gloves."

"Can you guess the purpose of any of the new symbols?" Hinoe asked him.

"Um… well the output seal is round, like the ball, so that means the direction is… outwards?" Naruto guessed. "Am I going to have to try and hover this ball over my hand or something? Is it a control exercise?"

"That's a good idea, but no, it's not." Hinoe then corrected him. "You're right in that the last symbol sends the result outwards in all directions, but the conversion symbol isn't a motion one, but a light one. The symbols you don't recognise at all represent storage and regulation. Now can you guess how this works?"

"Well, the input is still spiritual energy." Naruto started. "Then the storage part holds it and the next symbol leaks it out a bit at a time. The converter symbol then turns it into light… and the final symbol makes the entire ball light up."

"Correct." Hinoe confirmed. "Now pass it back so I can bind it all together." Naruto tossed it to her, and she caught it, before taking a knife to the wooden ball. "Now, I've decided to move onto light for two reasons. One, the only way you're going to get better at motion is with practise, and two, after this we are going to be working on combinations."

"Combinations?" Naruto asked. "You mean, with seals and techniques?"

"Seals primarily." Hinoe answered. "Once I think you've gotten light down well enough and know the symbols used, I'm going to give you a little project. I want you to make your _own_ light orb, but rather than simply glowing like this one will, I want it to also hover over your shoulder. Can you guess how that will work?"

Naruto thought about it for a moment. "Well, it'll use the stuff on that one to actually light up, and it'll need constant motion to stay over my shoulder? I'm guessing that'll need both storage and regulator symbols, won't it?"

"Once again, correct." Hinoe told him. "Once you learn to start creating entire seals from individual symbols, then seals are like another language entirely, with plenty of grammar rules and everything else." She huffed. "I took a look in a 'shinobi' store earlier, and all of their seals are standardised things, primarily explosions and item storage."

"Wait, you can put actual physical things in a seal?" Naruto wondered. "I thought you could only store energy and spiritual things in them?"

"Human seals are different to youkai seals, remember?" Hinoe reminded him. "Theirs includes a _physical_ aspect to them, which means they're constructed differently and can do different things."

Naruto huffed. "I _sooo_ want to learn them though."

"Yeah, just remember not to share your seals with others. Because ours are purely spiritual, they'll react really badly to mixed chakra, and it'd probably be best to avoid awkward questions." Hinoe cautioned him. "Now, _carefully_ start feeding your spiritual power into the ball, and let's see how well you can work with light."

Hinoe watched in silence as Naruto sat down cross-legged, with one arm held out, palm up. On that hand was the wooden ball that he was using as a medium for the technique. She knew he could call up his spiritual power, his reiryoku, in a mere second when he had the chance to focus on it, but it looked like he was being cautious with a new technique.

That was good. Recklessness was almost never a positive trait, especially when you were dealing with something you weren't familiar with, and she approved of the way he was working. A moment later, the wooden ball began to light up in Naruto's hand, and the boy himself opened his eyes.

"Well done, Naruto, you did it." Hinoe congratulated him. "Now, before going any further, can you tell me what two things about your spiritual power affect the light ball, and _how_ they affect it?"

"Well, there's the amount I put in there." Naruto said. "The more I put in, the longer the light lasts."

"Up to a limit, yes. Put too much in and you'll overload it." Hinoe added. "What about the other thing?"

"The… quality of the power?" Naruto guessed.

"Sort of." Hinoe granted him some leeway. "It's the density of the power, just how much of it you can compress into each drop of spiritual power you use. The denser it is, the brighter the light will be, and vice versa. As you can see, the light is quite bright, showing us that your spiritual power, and likely your chakra overall, is quite dense, more so than the average human at least."

Naruto gave her a confused look. "How do you even know what's normal for a human? I thought that youkai tended to keep their distance."

"Oh, we all have our secrets, Naruto." Hinoe smiled. "Now, keep practising with that light ball. See if you can cause it to brighten and dim, or if you're really feeling good at it, try and work out how to change the colour of the light."

As Naruto went back to his task, Hinoe's eyes darkened.

She knew as much as she did about how humans worked from those notes she'd looked over. Those labs that Riou had come across belonged to Orochimaru, a rather despicable human if ever there was one, and his experiments could be roughly broken down into three categories.

The first lot of experiments were attempts to extend a human's lifespan indefinitely, immortality in short. Some of the corpses she'd looked at had been horrifically deformed, their cells having mutated in strange ways due to what had been done to them, and their expressions had been twisted by agony.

The second set of experiments Orochimaru had done had involved inserting genetic patterns from other humans into his test subjects, attempting to graft bloodlines onto the bodies. From the notes she'd read, Hinoe had found out that he was actually starting to have some successes, even if the survival rate was lower than three percent.

The third group of test subjects was the one that Hinoe was focused on at present. Orochimaru had created a seal that was absolutely beautiful in effect, if rather crude in the way it was constructed. The seal had many layers to it, the first of which was a simple chakra storage seal. An attached layer was a compression seal, to increase the potency of the stored chakra, while a third layer facilitated the absorption of nature chakra.

After that is where things get… weird. The seal also contained some form of biological mutagen that forced the recipients body to change. On top of that, there was a final layer of the seal, one that attacked the mind of the one it was attached to. That last layer of the seal tried to make the carrier submissive and loyal to Orochimaru.

Hinoe actually wanted to steal parts of that seal to make something new. After all, having a chakra battery you can use is never a bad thing, and making Senjutsu easier is hardly a bad thing. Heck, if you can find something compatible for the body mutation part of it – like something with wings – then that could be useful too.

The problem was that human seals, unlike youkai ones, required a certain balance, and she couldn't remove the subjugation aspect of the seal without collapsing the whole thing, and she didn't know enough about human sealing methods to construct something to replace it.

Perhaps when Naruto gained access to the relevant materials she might pick that project up again. For now though, she had plenty to teach to her student.

xxxxx

After his lessons with Hinoe were over, where he practised the light ball thing, his force blast technique, and revised the different plant reagents he knew, Naruto headed straight towards the kappas' lake, where he found them waiting for him alongside Benio, who had a large bag of manju with her.

"I can see why Madara likes these so much." She told him when she saw him. "They are certainly quite delicious."

"Was there any problems getting them?" Naruto asked.

"None, really." Benio waved him off. "I just transformed into a random human, black hair, brown eyes, and so on and so forth. The effort it took me to do so reminded me just how long it's been since I've made myself visible to humans in any form other than as a butterfly. Anyway, I think the woman was more annoyed by me paying for the manju with so much small change than anything else, but she accepted the coins regardless."

"Well, that's okay then." Naruto shrugged. "Shall we take these to Madara and see if he'll take us to this place… and I just realised I don't know where Madara is _or_ where we're supposed to be going."

"I know where Madara will be lazing around right now." Benio offered.

""And we know where we're going!"" The kappa chorused.

"Well, shall we get going then?" Naruto asked.

"Follow me then." Benio said, before heading deeper into the forest.

Naruto and the group of kappa followed her, greeting a few of the other youkai they met along the way. Naruto, to keep himself busy, practised using his light ball, awing the kappa who, as rather low class spirits, didn't really use any techniques at all, though they could do a few tricks with water, which they promised to try and teach Naruto to do.

Naruto absolutely loved the kappa. They were just so… childish, they were like kids his own age, and they were a lot of fun as well. All of the youkai filled a role with Naruto. Hinoe was his teacher, but she was also the most maternal influence he had. Tsuyukami was like a father, or maybe an uncle, always willing to listen, and always with a bit some advice to give.

Riou was more distant, but he was still there, even if he had some other duties to attend to. The kappa were like the friends he didn't have amongst humans, and Benio… she was harder to describe. She irritated Naruto, and he played tricks on her in return. The both of them had this need to annoy one another, but Benio was also the first one to speak up for him against someone else, and Naruto looked up to her a bit, though he'd _never_ say that out loud.

The other youkai around the forest were like… his neighbours, or people who lived down the street from him. Vaguely friendly and polite, but not people he was particularly close to or knew much about. He had yet to meet any youkai outside of Riou's domain, not even Rokka's, so he didn't know how that would turn out, but he hoped things wouldn't go too badly, and there was no way he was going there alone until he could look after himself.

"Madara should be just ahead." Benio called out to them. "The clearing ahead is one of his favourite places to nap in the sun."

Naruto went on ahead of the others, and when he came out from the trees and into the clearing he had to stop in surprise. Madara was a lot… fluffier than he was expecting, and he was quite large as well.

He took the form of a large white canine, who could probably have swallowed a grown man whole given his size. He had yellow-brown eyes and red markings on his head. There was a design similar to a question mark in the middle, with three flecks at the top in a pattern around the curve of it and a dot in the middle. There was also red around his eyes, following the natural lines of his face.

"Madara?" Naruto murmured quietly, somewhat in awe of the youkai before him.

Madara had sensitive hearing though, and replied. "Who wants to know? I don't recognise you."

Naruto found Madara's deep, growling voice to be quite rich and appropriate for such a being. "Um, I'm Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki… I don't know if you've heard of me or anything..."

"The human who isn't blind." Madara said. "Yes, I know who you are, but why are you here?"

"Well, the kappa heard a rumour about a powerful water youkai being nearby, and we wanted to check it out, but we didn't want to take too much of a risk, so we thought about asking if you wouldn't mind watching out for us on this trip." Naruto told him.

"I'm not a babysitter, brat, find someone else to do it, I'm not interested." Madara replied.

"Um… we have manju." Naruto offered. "We heard you liked the stuff, so… if you take us, you can have the manju."

Now Madara appeared interested. "How much manju?"

"Um, Benio, could you bring them over here." Naruto asked.

"Sure, sure." Benio answered, carrying the large back of manju over to them. "Here, a bag full of manju for you, Madara, are you interested now?"

"How far did you want to go?" He asked.

"The rumours have the newcomer in the river at the Valley of the End." One of the kappa offered.

Madara nodded. "That's not too far then, we can be there and back again in a few hours." Madara was then covered in a large amount of grey white-grey smoke, from which appeared… a maneki-neko? Madara then proceeded to pull several manju out of the bag and begin to eat them.

Naruto wasn't the only one shocked by the transformation, even Benio's jaw had dropped in shock at seeing the great and powerful Madara turn into a little, fat cat.

"Umm, Madara, is there any reason you changed form into… well, that?" Naruto asked as politely as he could while his brain tried to superimpose the great and powerful youkai he'd seen a moment ago over… this.

"Idiot! If I'm large, the manju wouldn't even be a mouthful!" Madara told him. "Like this, it'll last me a few days!"

Naruto leaned towards Benio and whispered to her. "I'm not imagining his voice changing like that, am I?"

"No, I can hear the whiny noise too." Benio replied, still in shock.

Madara finished devouring a third manju, before he turned to his observers. "Let me just hide these and we can be on our way." The youkai said, before hopping off through the trees.

When he returned, barely a minute later, he was once again the massive inugami they'd first seen him as.

"Get on my back." He told them. "The quicker we leave and return, the sooner I can get back to my delicious manju."

Naruto and Benio climbed on behind Madara's head, and the half a dozen kappa climbed on behind them as well, and they all held on as tightly as they could as Madara leaped into the air.

"So, to the Valley of the End it is then." Madara said, before beginning to fly off in that direction, though how exactly he could fly without wings or anything, Naruto didn't know. Perhaps it was a youkai skill, and maybe Hinoe could teach him how to do it himself!

Flying was awesome after all!

xxxxx

Back at Naruto's school, the teacher known as Akiko was marking homework.

It was dull, repetitive work, but it had to get down, and she always did it as soon as she could, so it was done and out of the way. She had just finished marking one of her student's pieces, who needed to work on adding repeated values (or beginner multiplication as it were), when she moved onto Naruto's.

She quickly went through it, marking down everything as correct, before she took note of what else was doodled on the page. There were a few random squiggles and symbols that looked like they were supposed to mean something, but while she was curious about them, that wasn't what really caught her attention.

No, what caught her attention was a slightly damp hand print, one that was not human, and most definitely not Naruto's.

After all, Naruto didn't have webbed fingers, did he?


	5. Mizuchi

AN: Another chapter done, and I'm still waiting on suggestions for what Naruto can do before he starts the academy (or even during it). So far, I've only got a few things: An adventure in a swamp with hostile swamp creatures, going to Iron Country to see if they can find any weapon-type spirits (tsukumogami), and one time a powerful youkai kidnaps Naruto from the forest to eat him. I would really appreciate it if you guys could either flesh these ideas out or add some ideas of your own, please, it would be a big help for me. Ah, another thing, two things actually. First off, Madara Uchiha and Madara the inugami have absolutely nothing to do with each other (the former is a Naruto character and the latter is from Natsume Yuujinchou). Madara is in fact a rather common Japanese name for dogs, their equivalent of calling a dog 'Spot' or such like. Next thing, how powerful Naruto is. Is he going to be stronger than canon? Obviously yes. Is he going to curb stomp everything in his path? Hell no! His taijutsu will be good but not exceptional (suffering from a lack of a specific style), and by the time he learns ninjutsu, he'll have trouble with human techniques because of the way he was taught youkai techniques. Also, his youkai techniques won't instantly win him any fights, currently their more for utility than anything else, like a reading light, basic psychokinesis, etcetera.

There's a forum link on my profile, or you can use this: topic/139203/149040634/1/General-Spirit-s-Balance-Discussion

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 5 - Mizuchi

Naruto looked on in wonder as the land of fire was laid out below him like a living map, though it was so much more than just that. He could see _everything_ for hundreds of miles around, and more than that, he could see things shift and move. He could see flocks of birds (and even some bird type youkai flying at a lower altitude).

He could see mountains, and even one – that he had to take a second look at – youkai pretending to _be_ a mountain! The sheer power it must have to not only be a physical part of the landscape, especially with as large as it was, but to also force regular humans to ignore its obviously non-mountainous features… It chilled Naruto to the bone.

It also brought to life just how _real_ youkai were to him. They were not the 'monsters' he'd thought of them as before, and they were not 'human' by any stretch of the imagination, no matter how many traits of his race they echoed. No, they were beings that existed alongside humanity, but who followed different rules, whose minds and bodies were not things that could be easily comprehended by a human.

They were _youkai_ , and that was that.

It wouldn't change how he interacted with them. He wasn't suddenly afraid of them, but neither did have a sudden respect for them – anyone who'd seen the kappa playing around and having fun would have trouble with this. What he had was an _understanding_ of them.

"It's so beautiful." Naruto murmured, looking at the country from high in the air. "Now, where's the Valley of the End?"

"Ahead of us, look for the waterfall and statues." Madara told him.

"I think I can see the mist from the waterfall." Naruto said. "I'm guessing that's where we're going to start the search for this water youkai?"

The closest kappa nodded their head. "Yeah, yeah! Power gathers at waterfalls, so it's the best place to look for powerful, higher level youkai."

"Huh? I didn't know that." Naruto commented, to which Madara snorted.

"Significant places _always_ gather power." He told the blonde. "Waterfalls, the centres of forests, the peaks of the highest mountains, the depths of the earth, the centres of lakes, and so on and so forth. I'd be surprised to _not_ find a youkai or two in such places."

"So shouldn't there already be something at the Valley then, before this 'new' youkai moved here?" Naruto wondered.

Madara snorted. "That valley wasn't always what it is now, and is actually younger than your home village. It was formed when two ninjas fought each other – don't ask me who, I don't remember – and so to us youkai, it's really new, so it's not to surprising that no one has taken it for their own until now."

Naruto was silent as he thought about that.

To really old beings, just how little did years mean? The old men around the village, Naruto had heard, complained about 'kids these days', 'back in the day', and stuff like that. How then would something that was hundreds of years old, or more, see the paltry few years that Naruto had been alive, or even how old the ninja villages were?

"Pay attention, kid." Madara called out to Naruto. "We're almost there, and it'd be a shame for you to get eaten because you weren't paying attention, at least not before you can buy me more manju."

Naruto smiled. "I'll keep that in mind if I ever need your help again."

"Heh, you got yourself a deal, blondie." Madara chuckled, before heading back starting to descend.

xxxxx

Akiko, Naruto's teacher, had a troubled look on her face.

Even though it had dried, she could still see the webbed hand print on Naruto's homework. It didn't look like a purposefully done prank, it was too irregularly shaped for that, and she could even see the contours of the 'hand'. Naruto also wasn't one for mischief, he was too focused for that.

She was actually reminded of the rumours she'd heard about Naruto, how he told tales of invisible monsters no one but he could see. Was this, somehow, proof of Naruto's claim? He'd calmed down quite a bit in the last half a year, and if he'd found a 'monster' friend, or one that at least protected him…

Of course, the real question wasn't about that, it was what was she going to do now? She could just ignore it, that was the simplest option, and everyone would just get on with their lives. She could bring her 'evidence' to a higher power, the headmaster of the school, the village education board, or even the Hokage, and allow them to deal with it.

However, Naruto was her favourite student, and while not everyone in the village hated the blonde child, there _was_ most definitely animosity directed at him from other people, and she didn't know who bought into that hostility and who didn't, so passing on this information could be bad for Naruto.

That left, what, confronting Naruto herself? What would she even say to him? 'Hey, Naruto, there's a webbed hand print on your homework, did a monster touch it?' That sounded ridiculous… but Naruto _was_ a child, and so asking directly might be the easiest way to get an answer.

But then what?

If Naruto's 'monsters' turned out to be real, what would she do? She couldn't see them herself. Heck, as Naruto was the only one who had ever mentioned them, maybe he was the _only_ one who could see them! So what then? If they'd been around as long as she imagined they had, if they actually _were_ real, then they weren't particularly harmful to humans, were they?

Even Naruto, who could see them, had never been physically harmed by them, only scared.

Akiko sighed and groaned in frustration. She was a civilian teacher for goodness sake, not even a ninja instructor! Honestly, what was _she_ doing contemplating the existence of invisible spirits that may or may not exist? Still, her own damned curiosity wouldn't let her leave it alone, so she had two choices; either she confronted Naruto herself, or passed it up the chain.

Which one should she go for?

xxxxx

With his feet firmly on the ground, Naruto looked at the Valley of the End from a different perspective. Whereas from above, the statues either side of the waterfall had looked large, now they were absolutely massive. Hundreds of feet tall, they loomed menacingly above the shorter than average five year old, despite the fact he was stood on a ledge that was about chest high to them.

Madara sniffed the air. "There is definitely something here, and it's no weakling either."

"Is it really close?" Naruto asked. "Can you smell which direction it's in?"

Madara nodded. "Yeah, it's close, and it's downwards, at the bottom of the waterfall."

Naruto looked over the edge and gulped at how far down it was. However, he couldn't see anywhere to stand down there either. He said as much to Madara, who shrugged his shoulders.

"Humans have a trick that lets them walk on water, though I've no idea how they do so myself." He said.

"I know that one!" One of the Kappa offered. "They… erm… they push their chakra out through their feet! Dunno how that makes them walk on water though, but that's how they do it!"

Naruto frowned. "Wait, I thought chakra made them stick to things, isn't that how they run up and down trees and walls?"

"Maybe it does both?" One of the kappa guessed.

"But sticking and pushing off are opposites of each other." A confused Naruto mumbled.

"We can find out how they do it later." Benio commented. "Just have the kappa spy on one of the newer genin teams and see what their teachers tell them to do. Weren't we supposed to be checking out rumours of a strong youkai right now?"

"But _how_ can we check it out?" Naruto asked. "I can't get down there, and even if I could, I can't stand on water. I don't think the kappa will be happy to go alone either."

Madara huffed. "Well, we could always try and get their attention." He said, before taking a deep breath.

Madara then howled as loudly as he could, the sound echoing all around the Valley of the End.

As the sound faded, Benio turned to Madara with an incredulous expression on her face. "Did you really just do that?" She asked. "We have a powerful youkai who has just moved into the area, and you go and disturb them without even trying to find out anything more about them?"

"I'm no weakling, we'll be fine." Madara huffed in response, with Naruto making a mental note about the inugami's pride.

"Well you definitely got their attention." Naruto commented, drawing the two's attention to the large body of water below them that was now roiling and shifting as whatever was below it rose to the surface.

First, a serpentine head rose out of the water, followed by a similarly formed body. Large fins, or perhaps wings, appeared next, and kept on rising, higher, and higher, and higher.

Naruto was frozen in shock. This youkai… it's head was larger than Madara was, it looked like it could swallow him whole in a single bite, and despite having risen up to the same level they were stood at, the back end of its body had yet to leave the water. Just how large was this water dragon?

"A mizuchi." Benio breathed quietly. "I had thought that they'd all died out."

"Who is it that disturbs me _now_?" The massive creature grumbled, though Naruto thought it sounded rather tired in all honesty.

"Ah, Naruto, save us!" The kappa cried out, diving behind a confused Naruto, who wanted to know why they hid behind him instead of Madara.

"Um, hello there." Naruto started off awkwardly. "Er, sorry about disturbing you. We heard rumours about a new youkai moving in and decided to come say… hello to our new neighbour." Naruto's explanation had the lilt of a question to it, as he wasn't exactly sure what he was saying.

"A… human?" The mizuchi murmured, looking at Naruto. "One that can see me?"

"Um, yeah, my name's Naruto, what's yours?"

"My name… it is Ran." The mizuchi replied.

"Water Lily, huh?" Benio commented. "Appropriate."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Ran." Naruto waved at the mizuchi, who appeared bemused by the blonde child. "Um, I hope you don't mind me asking, but why did you move here?"

"I am not offended, Naruto." The mizuchi shook her head. "As for why I am here? I got fed up. Previously, I resided in Water Country, but the incessant fighting there annoyed me. I decided to find somewhere away from humans who did nothing but kill each other until the water I resided in turned red with their blood, and I found this place which is rich in power, and even better than that, currently uninhabited."

"I didn't know there was that much fighting going on in Water Country." Naruto said. "I mean, the third war was over years ago, wasn't it?"

Ran huffed. "They fight amongst themselves. On one side are those whose blood tastes normal for a human, and the other side has strange flavours to their blood." She shook her massive head. "I should know, their life fluid soaked my waters until I could hardly get the taste out of my mouth."

"Their… blood had flavours?" Naruto wondered.

"Bloodlines." Madara was the one to explain that. "Unique abilities and affinities that are passed down from parent to child. Your village is full of them, you could probably even name the clans with bloodlines."

"Ah, you mean like the Uchiha, the Hyuuga, and so on?" Naruto asked.

"The red eyes and the white eyes, yes." Benio confirmed, having learned human stuff alongside Naruto as she was with him in his lessons, albeit as a butterfly that rested on his head. Those two were amongst the most well known clans of Konoha, and even the civilian children knew about them, along with those such as the Senju and Sarutobi.

"Wait, does that mean the clans are fighting with their village in Water Country?" Naruto asked. "Why would they do that?"

The mizuchi shrugged, the motion rolling along her serpentine body. "I neither know, nor do I care. I would not have bothered with it if they kept it away from me, but I absolutely refuse to remain in those tainted waters any longer, it is unhygienic!"

"Okay, I guess that's your choice." Naruto said. "Well, it was nice to meet you anyway! If you feel like visiting, I live in Konoha, which is that way." He pointed towards the village. "Though I don't know how you'd get there, the rivers are smaller than this one is."

"I appreciate the offer, little one." The mizuchi said. "However, I am powerful enough to transform myself if I wish to, and can shrink myself to a more reasonable size. Do not be a stranger here yourself, I received few enough visitors before, and hearing any stories you can tell me would be wonderful."

"Okay then." Naruto replied. "I only really know a few stories about the village, but I'll see if I can find out some others for you."

"I look forward to an exchange of words with you." Ran bowed her head. "For now though, I need to rest and recover. Farewell, Naruto."

With that, Ran sank back beneath the water.

Naruto turned to the others. "Did you guys know about anything happening in Water Country? This sounds really important."

"I've been with you all the time, brat, if you didn't hear anything, how could I?" Benio shrugged.

"I rarely leave the forest, what would I hear, and why would I care what humans do to one another?" Madara added.

"We've heard nothing, but we can find out!" One of the kappa chimed in. "There's _loads_ of kappa in Water Country, so we can send a message to them and see what they can tell us."

"How are you going to send a message?" Naruto asked.

One of the kappa shrugged. "Plenty of bird-type youkai love flying all over the place, one of them will be happy to take it for us."

"Huh, that's pretty cool actually." Naruto said. "I wonder which is faster, ninja courier or bird youkai?"

"That's really great and everything, but can we head back now?" Madara interrupted them. "There's a bag full of manju just waiting for me back there."

"Very well, we did what we came here to do, let's go." Benio said, chivvying the kappa and Naruto onto Madara's back.

"Okay." Chorused Naruto and the kappa.

xxxxx

The next day, when Naruto went to school, he noticed that the teacher looked rather distracted, and she kept shooting him looks as well for some reason. He racked his brain to think about anything he might have done to cause that, but kept coming up with a blank.

At lunch, when he asked her, Benio couldn't think of anything either, and told him not to worry about it and just take things as they came. If the teacher had a problem with Naruto, well, they'd just have to straighten things out with her, wouldn't they? It wasn't likely that simply him being Naruto was a problem for her, she hadn't been acting like that just the day before.

It wasn't until the end of the day that they got an answer though, when she asked Naruto to stay behind for a few minutes.

As the other children filed out of the room, Naruto stood before the teacher's desk, and waited until all of the other kids had gone before asking her why she'd held him back and if he'd done something wrong.

"No, at least I don't think you have." Akiko answered him. "It's just, as I was marking homework last night, I found something unexpected on yours, a hand print of sorts. It's just, this hand print wasn't normal, it was webbed, like a frog's feet are."

Naruto paused, realising that one of the kappa must have left a hand print on his homework when they'd been asking him to come play with them. He hadn't noticed at the time, as he'd just finished his homework and was glad to have friends to play with.

"Now, Naruto, I'm not going to get mad, I'm not going to shout, and this is just between you and me, okay?" Akiko took a breath. "The… 'monsters' that I've heard you apparently talk about, they're… real, aren't they?" She stumbled over her words, as if she wasn't quite sure about the words that were coming out of her own mouth.

Slowly, hesitantly, Naruto nodded his head. "They say that they're actually youkai." He told her, though his voice was barely louder than a whisper.

"They do?" Akiko asked, before seeing how Naruto was looking. "Listen, Naruto, I understand that this might be hard to talk about." Goodness knows, no one had ever believed him before. "Still, while this feels really weird to me, I'm not calling you a liar. However, I'd like to know how you can see them, if the… youkai ever told you that."

"They don't know how I can see them, it confuses them too." Naruto answered, his voice regaining some of its strength. "They said that people with the sight have pretty much died out, and that they only know of one person who _might_ be able to see, and they're in Demon Country."

"I see, and are there any youkai around right now?" Akiko asked.

"Only Benio here." Naruto indicated the butterfly on his head.

Akiko looked confused. "I thought youkai were invisible monsters only you could see?"

"Benio doesn't normally look like this." Naruto told her. "Stronger youkai can transform into things visible to humans, or even reveal themselves as they are. Here, watch Benio as she turns back into her true form."

Obligingly, Benio cancelled her transformation, returning back to her female human-like form. To Akiko, it appeared as if the butterfly had suddenly vanished into thin air, and she whipped around looking for wherever it had gone. "Wha-"

"Benio's not the weakest youkai, but she's not super strong either, so she can only appear to humans as a small creature, and she likes to be a butterfly or dragonfly more than she likes being an 'ugly and unappealing bug'."

Akiko saw the butterfly then reappear on Naruto's head, settling back on his hair.

"Yesterday, you kept looking out of the window, and I couldn't see anything when I tried to look, was that a youkai thing too?" She asked.

"Yeah." Naruto admitted. "The kappa had heard a rumour of a strong water youkai being in the area, and they were gathering loose change to buy manju to bribe Madara with, so he'd take us to the Valley of the End."

"Madara? Valley of the End?" Akiko had so many questions racing around inside her head.

"Yeah, Madara's an inugami, and he's one of the strongest who lives nearby." Naruto told her, getting a bit more excited as he shared some of what he knew with another human, even if she was an adult! "The Valley of the End is where the youkai was, a huge mizuchi called Ran."

"That's nice." Akiko told him, in the tone of one who wasn't really sure how to respond. "So youkai are your friends?"

"Some of them are." Naruto replied. "I've been told stories of some of the nastier ones though, and I'm going to have to learn how to look after myself before I meet any of them."

Akiko inwardly raised an eyebrow. Hadn't he said, just a moment ago, that he'd gone looking for a new youkai at the Valley of the End? Or did he think that was safe because he had other youkai with him at the time.

While Akiko had prepared herself to at least try and accept that there _might_ be more to the world than she knew before the previous night, she'd not quite expected as much as Naruto was telling her. She'd thought, perhaps hoped, that if spirits actually existed, they'd be weak little apparitions that could do little more than scare someone, or might perhaps be as strong as a civilian, but it sounded like they were so much more than that.

Akiko sighed. "Naruto, I just have a few questions for you. Do you think you can answer them for me?"

"Yeah, sure." Naruto responded.

"Right, first off, are you safe with the youkai?" She asked.

"I am, Hinoe's even teaching me some awesome stuff, even if it's not very useful in a fight yet." Naruto nodded.

Ignoring whoever this 'Hinoe' was, or what sort of youkai she must be, Akiko asked her next question. "Now, are you _happy_ with the youkai?"

"Of course I am." Naruto confirmed. "Benio here is always with me, Hinoe is teaching me stuff, and I play with the kappa and kogitsune. I also get along with Madara, Riou, and others as well."

"Good." Akiko replied, even if most of those names meant nothing to her. "Now, is there anything you need that they youkai can't provide for you?"

"Nothing that I know of." Naruto told her. "Everything seems fine to me."

"Alright then, Naruto, thank you for telling me this." Akiko smiled at the boy. "I won't pretend that I understand anything about your… situation, but just know that if there's anything you need, and the youkai can't get it for you, come to me, and I'll see what I can do, okay?"

"Okay." Agreed Naruto. He was just about to turn and leave when he paused, and an odd look crossed his face, before he asked her something himself. "Oh, Benio asks if you know why the villagers don't really like me that much."

"I… do know why." Akiko hesitantly replied. "However, I can't tell you. The Sandaime made it a law that no one is supposed to talk about it. I think he meant for you to have a more normal childhood than you did, but… Anyway, while I can't tell you why you're disliked, I can say that it's not something you did yourself, and your parents, if my guess is right, have nothing to do with it either."

"My parents? You know who they are?" Naruto asked, eager to hear more, but was disappointed when Akiko shook her head.

"I don't know who they are, but if I were to guess, I'd say your mother is probably someone named Kushina Uzumaki. I could be wrong though, I have no way to be sure." She gave Naruto a sad smile, but he only grinned in response.

"Thank you, sensei!" He called out, waving to her. "It's more than I've ever heard before, so thank you."

Akiko smiled as she watched Naruto walk out of the door, but once he was out of sight, she slumped in her seat. Seeing that child so happy to hear about his parents, only for her to give him what amounted to a guess, it was heart-breaking. Such a happy young child deserved so much more than that.

To think, as well, that it wasn't even humans who were looking after him now, but youkai. What did it say about her species that another race entirely were looking after one of their own, one that was reviled and scorned in his own village, his own home.

"I am _so_ not the person to deal with this." She muttered under her breath.

However, regardless of her aptitude, she was the one who had _chosen_ to deal with this.

xxxxx

Naruto's birthday came, and as she promised, Hinoe watched over him as he created his first potion. He didn't ask where she got the metal pots he was using from, just like he'd stopped asking where all those scrolls of hers came from, she would just give him a mysterious smile and evasive answer like she always did.

"How are things going, Naruto?" Hinoe asked, keeping an eye on him.

"The tree bark is boiling, and the water's turning yellow. That means it's going well." Naruto said, looking at one that was essentially some sort of tea. "I've crushed the herbs I need and separated them into different small bowls. I've crushed the berries I need, and extracted the juice. Finally, Riou gave me a small vial of his blood to act as the spiritual reactant, as I'm not yet good enough to infuse it with my own spiritual energy."

"Very good." Hinoe praised him. "Now, while you add the next reagent, can you tell me how many doses this will make, and how to safely consume them?"

"I'm making enough for twenty doses." Naruto told her, adding the thyme. "Each dose should last around four hours, and I shouldn't take more than three doses per day, less if I take other potions."

"Well done, Naruto." Hinoe smiled at him. "Now, this particular potion has a rather weak effect, and won't make you drastically stronger, faster, or more durable than you normally are. The advantages of it are that it's a very simple one to make, doesn't require extreme precision, and has very minor side effects if you overdose on it."

"I know." Naruto said. "I want to work on healing potions next though."

"I'll consider it." Hinoe told him. "However, even the simplest of healing potions is far more complex and delicate than fortifying draughts."

"I know." Naruto sighed, before cheering up. "I'm just glad that Akiko-sensei got me some ninja-grade poison vials for my birthday."

"Well you don't want them to break, do you?" Hinoe shrugged. "A potion is useless if you can't drink it."

"Maybe I can thank her by making her some tea." Naruto considered. "Hey, there's some teas which are really good for you, aren't there?"

"There are, Naruto, even humans know that." Hinoe chuckled. "However… there are a few things we can do to make them more effective. Perhaps we can use that as your next little project instead of health potions, it's a much smaller step up in terms of difficulty."

"Yeah, I'll do that then." Naruto affirmed, before going back to checking on his potion's progress.

"Hmm." Hinoe hummed to herself, keeping an eye on Naruto and his brewing. "While we wait for the next step to be ready, why don't you practise with light a bit more? I heard from Benio that you'd thought of a way to practise both motion and light at the same time, care to share?"

"Huh? Oh, that." Naruto perked up. "Well, I thought that, if a single blast blows things away, then a constant one should keep things in place, no? Than, if I use my force gloves to hover the light ball above my hand, while at the same time controlling the light, then it'll let me train both abilities at once. Is that right?"

"Yes, that would work." Hinoe told him. "You're quite a bit away from that though. Splitting your focus is something you should only do when you know what you are doing with each individual action. You are _months_ away from having that level of proficiency. Before you practise two different expressions of power, though, it's best to try it with one first."

"What?" Naruto asked, rather bluntly, not understanding what she was saying.

Hinoe sighed. "Rather than going for motion and light at the same time, try two motion effects instead, like this." With that, a small pebble rose up in front of Hinoe, before moving side to side, and then slowly drawing a circle in the air in front of her.

"I used two motion effects to do that." She explained. "One very vertical movement, and another for horizontal. Once you've learned how to control motion in bursts, you'll learn to control it as a constant release, and only _after_ that will you learn to remotely control something else. You have a very long way to go until you get to that point, Naruto."

"If you say so." Naruto shrugged.

It had taken him about six months to work out how to separate his spiritual and physical chakra, use it as a sort of force blast, and also use it to light up a ball. Given that this was all ground work which he would later build on with more complex skills, it wasn't really that surprising that it would probably take him years to become at all accomplished in their use.

"Hey, Hinoe, you told me that light, heat, and motion were the easiest to control. If they're the easiest, that means there's more complex stuff, what is it?" Naruto piped up.

Hinoe narrowed her eyes. "I will tell you, Naruto, but _only_ if you promise me that you won't mess around with them until I say you're good and ready for it. The other expressions of energy are very dangerous, and not to be trifled with."

"I promise." Naruto said, a serious expression on his face.

Hinoe contemplated actually telling him or not, but after a moment sighed. "The other expressions of energy youkai use are sound, corrosive, and raw power, and I don't _ever_ want to hear of you messing around with them carelessly, especially not the last one."

"Um, okay." Naruto agreed. "But, how is sound dangerous? I get that corrosive energy destroys stuff, and I guess in its raw state energy is… difficult to handle, but what's so bad about sound?"

"Let me show you." Hinoe told him, before levitating three pebbles in the air in front of her.

"First, the most unpredictable, raw power." The first stone exploded with a bang, making Naruto jump. "While it is useful, allowing someone to do amazing things, like summon youkai, create barriers, and do numerous other things, it has a tendency to explode if handled incorrectly."

"Secondly, corrosive." The second stone suddenly hissed, before it began to fragment, eaten away at like it had been dissolved in a powerful acid. "Corrosive energy is difficult to create, as you have to condense your power quite a bit to use it, but once that's been done, there's very little that can stop it, and I've known youkai lose limbs and their lives when they've been careless with it."

"Thirdly, sound." The last stone, to Naruto's great surprise, shattered, and flew everywhere like shrapnel. "Another way of putting it is that sound is pressure, and despite how simple it sounds to use, and it is fairly easy to produce, it is _very_ difficult to direct, as it naturally wants to expand outwards from the point of origin."

"Okay, no messing around with what I don't understand, got it." Naruto said, his voice slightly higher pitched than normal, his wide eyes still locked on where the third pebble had been, before it had been subjected to Hinoe's attack.

"Good." Hinoe nodded. "Now, keep an eye on your potion, we don't want your efforts to go to waste, do we?"

Naruto nearly snapped his own neck with the speed he turned towards the pot full of boiling bark, and seeing it ready for the next step, got to it.

Hinoe settled down, watching her student, and relaxed after the strain using her power like that had caused her. She much preferred to stick to complex, if less energy intensive, skills.

Still, she'd teach Naruto everything she knew, and see what choices he made in the future.


	6. Camp Naruto!

AN: Another chapter, and at the end I start to introduce the next mini arc before the Ninja Academy. Now, a few people asked whether things would stay purely in the youkai world, and the answer to that is no, but Naruto's pre-Academy days will heavily involve youkai. I do have a mini-arc planned out for when Naruto has only just started the Academy with Yakumo Kurama, but that's the only thing really ninja related I have at present, though any ideas you guys can give me would be awesome!

A link to my forum can be found on my profile, or you can use this: topic/139203/149040634/1/General-Spirit-s-Balance-Discussion

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 6 – Camp Naruto!

After Naruto's trip to the Valley of the End, things proceeded as they normally did. During the week, he woke up on the morning, got ready for school, went to class, came home to the forest, had his daily lesson with Hinoe, and then did whatever he wanted with the rest of the day.

Usually, he'd end up playing some sort of game, but also, and sometimes instead of that, he'd do something else. For example, he'd borrowed a book of short stories from the library one time, and bribed Madara to take him to the Valley of the End so he could read some of them to Ran the Mizuchi. Another time, he'd gone wandering through the forest, identifying plants and collecting reagents for himself so he could make more potions.

On the weekends, Naruto pretty much disappeared from Konoha. He'd spend his time in the forest, practising placing traps to catch squirrels, birds, rabbits, and so on and then he'd skin them and cook them over a camp fire with some wild herbs he collected.

During his time amongst youkai, Naruto had gained quite the taste for 'natural' teas. Hinoe's next lesson, after he'd finished with the light ball, had in fact been to use his spiritual power to heat the water for his tea. The next step after that, as far as heat was concerned, was to heat the metal pots he made his potions in.

Anyway, Naruto's time during the weekend was more varied than during the week. He'd sometimes ask around the local youkai if they needed something doing, and had taken to fulfilling these tasks as a way of experiencing what basic ninja missions were like.

They were rarely difficult tasks. Once he'd had to gather the ingredients for a medicine kogitsune used to change shape, and another time he'd helped sort it out when two friends had had an argument with each other. Simple as things might be, the youkai thanked him with a few small things, such as when one of the bird youkai he'd helped had gotten him a rare plant that didn't grow naturally in Fire Country.

Very, _very_ rarely, sometimes Akiko-sensei came to visit Naruto in the forest. She didn't do it more than once or twice a month, and even Naruto could tell she was rather uncomfortable there, but she was still a bit curious about youkai in spite of her hesitance.

She met some of the youkai capable of taking a form visible and tangible to humans. Riou, for example, could look like a regular human if he wished too, though he had to be careful not to let his wings show. Hinoe could also make herself seen by humans, though she didn't really bother with something so 'pointless'. There were others capable of taking lesser forms, like Benio becoming a butterfly, or some of the lesser inugami becoming dogs, and even the three weasels in the forest, and the single bakaneko in the forest, who was still young and only capable of becoming a regular cat.

Naruto was happy when Akiko took a liking to the teas, or more accurately 'tisanes', that Naruto had made, and he put more of an effort in learning a youkai version which was supposedly able to keep one 'youthful and rejuvenated', whatever that meant.

All in all, Naruto was very happy with the way things were, and he wouldn't change a thing about the way he was living.

xxxxx

Hiruzen Sarutobi was growing more and more concerned as time went by. Naruto, as much as he seemed happy, was drawing further and further away from other people, other humans, as time wore on. He wasn't even turning up at the orphanage to eat any longer, and outside of school hours, no one could find him at all, aside from the times he went to the library.

As much as it pleased the Hokage to hear Naruto doing as well at school as he was, and that he was getting away from the glares and looks of disgust some people threw his way, the whispers too, Naruto _needed_ to develop closer ties to the village, and he needed friends as well.

The problem was that the Hokage, no matter how much power he had, couldn't force people to be friends, especially not young children. The best he could do was set up situations that would hopefully lead to the desired result. Of course, along comes the problem of Naruto just up and disappearing all the time. How could he set up situations for Naruto if the boy in question was never there!

Sighing at the sight of his remaining paperwork, Hiruzen instead directed his attention to his crystal ball. Not really expecting to get a response, he's surprised when it locks onto Naruto, and shows the blonde boy. Taking a quick look around the child, he sees that he's in the library.

Deciding that his paperwork can wait, and checking that he has no appointments scheduled that afternoon, the Hokage leaves his office and makes quick time towards the library, which is thankfully quite close to the Hokage Tower.

When he arrives, the librarian looks up curiously, before straightening up when she realises that the Hokage himself has come to visit. He quietly enquires about the whereabouts of Naruto, and is directed not, as he had expected, to the history section or what few texts are available to civilians regarding ninja. Instead, he's directed towards the crafts section.

His own curiosity roused, he heads down the aisles of shelves. It doesn't take him very long to find the blonde boy who was tucked away in an alcove, a small stack of books next to him. Taking a look at what books Naruto's reading, Hiruzen finds that they are about a variety of topics, such as preserving and tanning furs and hide, basic woodworking, and traps.

"Old man?" Naruto looks up when a shadow falls over him to see the Hokage standing there.

"Hello, Naruto." Hiruzen smiles. "An interesting selection of books you have there."

Naruto nods his head. "Well, if I'm going to be a ninja, I have to know how to look after myself when I'm out of the village, don't I? That means at least learning how to catch and cook wild animals, and what plants are good to eat, right?"

"It's a very good idea, but a lot of people actually forget about things like that." Hiruzen chuckled. "I was one of them back when I was a genin. I relied too much on the rations my team carried, and we ran out about two days before getting back to the village one time."

"Did you manage to catch or find anything you could eat?" Naruto asked. "You had the Nidaime Hokage for a sensei if I remember right."

"We did, but let me share a secret with you, Naruto." Hiruzen leaned forwards. "Neither of my predecessors were very good hunters. In fact, Tobirama-sensei was abysmal. We only managed to catch a deer because he used a kunai kage bunshin jutsu to kill it."

"Shadow clones?" Naruto murmured. "I've read that some villages have solid clone techniques, but what good is a shadow clone?"

"It's solid, like elemental clones, even if it is easily dispelled." Hiruzen told him. "However, what's best about them is that they transfer their experience back to the ninja when they are dispersed. I'm not here to talk ninjutsu though, I came to see you."

"Um… okay?" Naruto seemed confused as to why exactly he was here.

Hiruzen sighed. "Naruto, I worry about you. You might not be my own flesh and blood, but I think of you as a grandson just as I do Konohamaru, my daughter's son. For almost a year now, you constantly disappear goodness knows where, you don't stay at the orphanage, and the only time anyone knows where to find you is during school. Please, Naruto, can you tell me where you are staying?"

"I'm staying in the forest, I like it there." Naruto told him. "There's a small river and lake nearby, and I can fish and set traps and stuff. I also know what plants are good to eat, and which ones are healthy, so it's not like I'm starving or anything."

"I'm glad to hear you're doing well, Naruto, truly I am, but… you need to make some friends as well." Hiruzen sighed. "It's not good for you to cut yourself off like you have. While you might be 'living', you're not developing as much as you otherwise might."

"Akiko-sensei is my friend." Naruto said.

"I'm glad for you, but she's not your age." The Hokage's eyes flickered to Benio settled on Naruto's head, and remembered his theory about butterfly summons. "You need friends, Naruto, _human_ friends."

"I've tried making friends with my classmates before." Naruto told him. "It didn't work."

"Naruto… civilians tend to be wary about things they don't understand, ninjas too, but the latter generally have a much greater scale of 'unusual' that they deal with, and tend to be more… tolerant of oddities." Hiruzen chose his words carefully. "Perhaps if you tried talking or playing with a clan child, or even one who has ninja parents, you might have an easier time making friends."

"If you say so." Naruto said, shrugging his shoulders. "Why is it people don't like me anyway?"

The Hokage's eyes clouded over at Naruto's question, and answered it as best as he thought he could at this point in Naruto's life.

"When they look at you, they see something else, Naruto. It's not your fault, and I'm certain that in time you will prove yourself to this village, and they will see you how you were always supposed to be seen..." He paused then. "I'll make you a deal, Naruto. When you graduate the Academy, as a genin, I want you to introduce me to your best friend. If I see that you truly are close friends… then I will tell you why you are disliked, okay?"

"O-kay." Naruto replied hesitantly. "I'll see what I can do then."

"You do that, Naruto, it will be good for you." The Hokage said, ruffling Naruto's hair. "It seems this blonde mop of yours has gotten quite a bit longer and wilder when I wasn't looking, perhaps it's time to think about getting it cut."

Naruto grinned. "Nah, I like it this way."

"If you insist." Hiruzen huffed. "Now, how about I treat you to lunch, and then maybe you can show me where your little camp is hidden, eh?"

"Sure." Naruto agreed. "Where are you going to take me?"

Recalling Naruto's mother's fondness for a particular type of food, Hiruzen made a decision on where he would take Naruto.

xxxxx

"A ramen stand?" Naruto asked, looking at where Hiruzen had taken him.

"Correct, I have a feeling you'll like what they sell here, Naruto." Hiruzen smiled in nostalgia, recalling how Kushina would devour half a dozen bowels of salt ramen at a time here, despite being quite a good cook herself, or at least Minato appeared to be addicted to her cooking.

"If you say so." Naruto shrugged. "I guess I'll have a… miso ramen, maybe?"

"So will I then." Hiruzen said. "Did you catch that, Teuchi?"

"Of course, Hokage-sama." A smiling man, obviously this Teuchi person, said. "And I see you've brought a friend with you too."

"I have. This is Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto, this is Teuchi Ichiraku, owner of Ramen Ichiraku, and quite the skilled chef as well." The Hokage introduced them both.

"Nice to meet you, Naruto, it's always good to see a new face." Teuchi smiled at the young blonde.

"It's nice to meet you as well." Naruto politely greeted the man.

"Okay then, you're ramen will be ready shortly." Teuchi said, turning away to get to work.

While they did that, Hiruzen decided to have a chat with Naruto, it'd been far too long since he'd done just that, and the small blonde _was_ one of his favourite people.

"So, Naruto, I saw the books you borrowed from the library, and you mentioned something about traps. I'm going to take a guess and say that you want to do something with the skins of the animals you eat, right?" The Hokage said.

"Yeah, that's right." Naruto nodded. "The book says you can use an animal's brain to tan their hide, so I don't have to buy any special chemicals or anything. I have some rabbit and squirrel skins waiting for me back at my camp so I can try it out."

"And the woodworking books?" Hiruzen asked curiously.

"Everyone needs a hobby." Naruto shrugged. "Besides, when I get older, I want to see what Fuinjutsu can do, so practising carving and calligraphy should be a good idea, no?"

"Fuinjutsu?" Hiruzen blinked in surprise. "A rather underused skill that, most focus on ninjutsu and taijutsu, with others preferring genjutsu or medical techniques. Fuinjutsu… a very uncommon discipline, and one with a lot of potential too. It's unfortunate, but there's very few ninjas in the entirety of the elemental nations who are accomplished at seals, and the number of seal masters can be counted on two hands."

"Are seals really that difficult to make?" Naruto asked with a frown. The youkai style seals he'd seen were simple and logical. If he had seen a circuit diagram, he'd actually compare them to each other in how they did what they were supposed to, with no different ways of 'interpreting' them.

"Copying seals is actually rather easy, it's how explosive tags and storage scrolls are mass produced." The Hokage told him. "Creating a brand new seal from scratch, that's a completely different thing, and incredibly difficult. It's also very time consuming, and very dangerous too. If you ever do decide to make your own seals, I'd advise you to have a solid clone of some sort take it somewhere isolated when you first test it out."

"I'll have to be at least a genin to get access to even basic stuff about sealing." Naruto replied. "I don't think you'll have to worry about me blowing myself up for a few years yet."

Hiruzen chuckled. "No, I guess not."

The two of them kept talking as they waited for their ramen to be ready. Hiruzen felt himself relax quite a bit. Despite not having much human interaction, Naruto was more well-balanced than he could have hoped for him to be. Now all that was left was to see where he had hidden himself away, and he'd take a step back.

Telling him that he'd share why the villagers didn't like him if he made a friend might be rather manipulative, but it would be good for Naruto, and it would be good for his peace of mind. After all, was not the Will of Fire all about cherishing strong bonds with others and protecting them?

Their food arrived in good time, and the both of them dug into it. Neither spoke much as they ate their food, but once they'd both finished, Hiruzen turned to Naruto, asking him how much he'd liked it, anticipating quite an enthusiastic response. Instead, he got something less grandiose.

"It was good, really good, but I think I prefer roast squirrel myself." Naruto responded.

"Hmm, not quite the answer I was expecting." Hiruzen muttered, earning him a confused look from Naruto. "Never mind though, shall we go and see your little camp now?"

"Sure." Naruto said, before getting up and leading the way.

xxxxx

Genma Shiranui, one of the Hokage's guards, couldn't help but feel a shiver run down his spine as he followed the Sandaime Hokage and Naruto Uzumaki deeper and deeper into the forest. He felt like there were dozens of eyes on him constantly, but there was no one around whenever he stopped to look. It was freaking him the heck out.

He also couldn't help but think on all of the monster stories he'd heard that young Naruto had come up with, and a small part of his mind that he didn't want to acknowledge wondered… was he right? It certainly felt like they were surrounded, but he couldn't see anyone, and it was extremely creepy. He'd be happy when this was over and the Sandaime was back in his office.

His unease only grew when Naruto looked back over his shoulder at him with an amused expression on his face.

That did it, Naruto Uzumaki was officially a creepy kid. Regardless of who his parents were – and Genma knew exactly who they were – he was definitely someone that made him feel like looking over his shoulder every two seconds despite _knowing_ he wouldn't see anything.

The other guards that had followed the Hokage weren't exempt from the sensations that Genma was feeling, and they all felt at least some hesitance about coming back to this part of the forest in the future, with two of them even making mental notes to avoid it if at all possible.

When they got to where Naruto's camp was, they were surprised at how good it looked. They'd been expecting something that could be called 'ramshackle' at best, but instead, they found something that at least looked presentable.

There was where Naruto obviously slept, a shelter made from lashed together branches, with another smaller shelter with doors and shelves that held clothes, wooden bowls and plates, soap, and other things like that. Nearby, tied to parallel sticks, were the skins that Naruto was working on. Beside Naruto's sleeping area were a few notebooks that the blonde boy quickly tidied away. The only other particularly notable thing there was a circle of stones and scorched earth where Naruto probably had his camp fire.

"You seem to have done well for yourself, Naruto." Hiruzen said, honestly surprised. He wasn't expecting something as good as this, but then again, Naruto had started disappearing almost a year ago, and if he'd been building up this little hide away of his that long, well, he'd obviously put the effort in to make it as well as he could.

"Yeah, but I might rebuild some of it if I can learn something good from those woodworking books, and if I can get my hands on the right tools." Naruto said proudly.

"Hmm." Hiruzen mused to himself. That was something he could do for Naruto discretely. After all, a basic set of tools was innocuous enough. He paused then as he caught sight of something that was a little more refined than the wooden plates and bowls Naruto had, aside from the metal pots that was.

"Naruto, are those poison vials I can see there?" He asked.

"Ah, Akiko-sensei gave me them for my last birthday." The six year old said. "I've been reading about plants that are good for your health and how to mix them together to get useful antidotes and things, like those chakra pills you can buy. My mixtures are nowhere near that good, but it's good practice anyway."

"Well, you're certainly learning plenty of useful little skills." Hiruzen praised him. "It seems portions of the Ninja Academy curriculum will be useless to you by the time you get there."

"Oh?" Naruto tilted his head to the side questioningly. "What do you actually need to pass the Ninja Academy?"

"Oh, you have to pass several exams." Hiruzen said. "Let's see, there's a history test, a taijutsu test, throwing accuracy and speed with kunai and shuriken, and the academy three ninjutsu." He paused. "You can get a bonus score for showing another ninjutsu you know, aptitude for genjutsu, or skill with a weapon."

Naruto nodded, absorbing all of what he was told. "Old man, what are the academy three?"

"Hm? They're three simple techniques that are quite useful." The Hokage explained. "Henge creates a shell of chakra around you and reflects and refracts light to make you appear as someone or something else. Kawarimi allows you to swap places with another object, though you practice with a log roughly your own weight. The last of the three is Bunshin, which creates illusionary clones that can confuse and misdirect an enemy."

"Wow, they sound awesome!" Naruto exclaimed.

"That's because they are, but aside from Kawarimi, most people tend to forget them for other, more destructive jutsu." The Hokage added. "Most people dismiss them because they are the 'basics'."

"That sounds silly." Naruto commented.

Hiruzen chuckled. "Ah, but there are people who go to the other extreme and become really good ninja just with basic techniques. Shisui of the Body Flicker is a really good ninja, and his signature jutsu is the Shunshin, something that almost every chunin ninja knows, and even a handful of genin too."

"So it's really easy to become a super awesome ninja?" Naruto asked.

"Easy? No, it isn't." Hiruzen gently admonished the boy. "However, if you find out what you're good at early, and train hard, you can become really good without knowing dozens of high level techniques. Of course, strong ninjutsu doesn't hurt, and if you ever want to get to my level, you _need_ to be strong in all areas, but someone who knows what they want, and has the resources, can go a lot further than someone who fumbles about trying everything out and never settling down."

Naruto didn't reply, a contemplative look on his face.

"Now, Naruto, I've got to get back to my office, paperwork waits for no man after all." Hiruzen said. "It was good seeing you today, and I'm happy to see how well you can look after yourself. Just remember to try and make a few friends, please."

"Bye, old man, see you another time." Naruto waved the Hokage and his guards off, still thinking about what his grandfather figure had said.

"I'll be seeing you then. Goodbye." The Hokage bid him farewell too, and left, followed by his personal guards.

xxxxx

Unseen by the Hokage and his guards, there were several youkai present that watched them disappear. Once they'd left hearing range, Hinoe took her pipe out of her mouth and gave Naruto a look.

"Well, that was informative. Now we at least know what you need to graduate Ninja Academy." She commented. "Some of it we should be able to cross off the list quite easily."

"Yeah, I've been reading plenty of history books." Naruto agreed.

"That too, but I was actually referring to two of the 'ninjutsu'. We youkai are capable of both physical transformations and illusions, and I'll start you on both once I feel your primary three are up to scratch." Hinoe corrected him. "We have no equivalent for this kawarimi though, so you'll have to wait for the Academy to teach that to you."

"So, to pass, that leaves me with taijutsu and weapon throwing skills." Naruto mused.

"As well as any of the extra credit proficiencies you wish to look into." Riou added. "I would have thought you would 'overdo' something rather than not do enough."

"Yeah, but I'm already covered with the youkai techniques I know that would count as 'an additional ninjutsu', and I _could_ learn another illusion while I'm faking the bunshin. That only really leaves learning to use a weapon from the extra credit choices. I also have to learn to fight in hand-to-hand and throw standard weaponry." Naruto said. "Is there any youkai that are any good at fighting like a human?"

"No, none that I know of." Riou shook his head. "And Martial Arts isn't something that can be learned at all quickly either. That _is_ something that will take years to learn properly, so it is best to start early if you can. Is there no books in the library on, what do humans call them, cats?"

Naruto laughed at that. "I think you mean katas, and no, there isn't. What's in the library is stuff any civilian has access to, and that means there's nothing at all in there about fighting. I need to learn how to fight though, clan children start learning really young, so they'll have a head start on me there."

Benio snorted. "True, but I doubt many of them have the same drive you do, so things will probably be more equal than you expect, at least when things balance out. I don't think they teach their kids the same level of wilderness survival stuff that you know, and your traps are pretty good already."

"Are there _any_ youkai that can fight with anything resembling a 'style'?" Naruto huffed.

"Not that I know of." Riou smiled lightly. "You forget that almost all of the youkai around here are beast types. The only sort of youkai that might know how to fight like a human are weapon tsukumogami, and they're more common in Iron Country."

"They are?" Naruto asked. "Could we go to Iron Country, and do you think they'd be willing to teach me?"

Hinoe calmed Naruto down. "You won't be going right now, Iron Country is quite far away, and it is very cold there too. Before you go there at all, you _will_ be prepared for the weather, _and_ you will not be skipping any school because of it either!"

"So it's cold? Does that mean I can use a 'heat' technique to keep myself warm?" Naruto asked with a smile. "I could also make something out of the furs I'm going to be tanning too."

Hinoe huffed. "You'll need far better control if you're going to keep yourself warm with your spiritual power, one slip up and you could cook yourself alive! Wearing furs, taking some firewood with you and lighting that, or simply warming up your clothing are all better ideas."

"Then I'll do that then." Naruto nodded.

Riou chuckled, shaking his head at the sight before him, before contributing what he could. "As for them teaching you, weapon tsukumogami tend to fall into one of two categories, the blood-thirsty, and the protective. The former will want nothing more than to kill you in as gory a fashion as they can, while the latter may teach you something, especially as you're still a child."

"So, could I go to Iron Country during school break in two months?" Naruto asked.

"Not without taking someone, or preferably more than one, to take care of you. Iron Country is a dangerous place, and you are not strong enough to deal with even moderate threats from youkai." Hinoe sternly cautioned him.

Looking towards Riou, Naruto was disappointed to see him shake his head.

"This is my territory, Naruto, I can't just leave it, especially not to enter another's domain." Riou shook his head. "Why not Madara? He's never got much to do, and he _is_ rather powerful. Misuzu too, but I don't think you've met him yet, and he's likely to test you in some fashion."

Hinoe nodded to herself. "Yes, Misuzu is the only other particularly strong youkai around here aside from myself, Riou, Madara, and Rokka. Rokka and Riou have their territories to watch over, and I am strong in a different way to the horse and the dog."

"Enough of this for now." Benio interrupted them. "Brat, why don't you go play with the kappa, or the kogitsune? I hear that they were planning something this afternoon, it could be interesting, no?"

"Okay, I suppose." Naruto answered. "See you guys later!"

As soon as Naruto disappeared, Benio looked at the others with a serious expression on her face. "Earlier today, the Hokage made a promise to Naruto. He basically told Naruto to make at least one good human friend, and if he did so then he'd explain why so many people in the village fear and hate him as much as they do."

"Did he say _anything_ about what it might be?" Riou asked.

"Not much, just that when they see Naruto, they don't see the boy himself but something else, and that ninja had a different scale of weird to most other people." She told them. "He's encouraging Naruto to become a ninja, and he seems quite invested with him as well, but I don't know why, can you guess what he's on about?"

Riou sighed. "I can't work it out either. It sounds like Naruto is a jinchuuriki, a host to one of those tailed beasts, but he doesn't feel like one himself. The feeling I get from him is… different, even if it is similar in some ways to what I've sensed from those beings in the past."

Hinoe grunted in agreement. "He feels incomplete, like someone attempted to make him a vessel, but didn't do it properly, or like they attempted to seal something that wasn't actually a tailed beast using the wrong method. Neither answer makes much sense."

Riou nodded. "The nine tails appeared six years ago, right when Naruto was born, so if he _was_ a jinchuuriki, that's the only one he could really have sealed inside of him. That would at least explain his ridiculously massive reserves, but like we have said, he doesn't feel like a host."

"Well, could some of the nine tails loose energy have been sealed inside of Naruto then?" Benio asked. "It wasted so much of its power that everything the area it appeared was absolutely saturated with its power, and if I remember right, the biju actually produce power naturally, so could its chakra be doing the same inside of Naruto?"

"That would explain it..." Hinoe mused. "Without the entire tailed beast, his own power would feel a little similar without being identical, and that connection _might_ just be enough for villagers to despise him, especially if they jumped to incorrect conclusions..."

"However, it changes nothing even if it is true." Riou shook his head. "The nine biju are _not_ youkai, and so our own methods of using our power will not necessarily work for its dense chakra, and could be dangerous for Naruto. Our best option is to gather more information, and if one of the requirements for getting that information is Naruto graduating from the Ninja Academy, well, all we can do is make him the best ninja we can, no?"

"Not like we were going to do otherwise." Hinoe shrugged, a small smirk on her face.

Benio rolled her eyes. "Right, whatever, I'm going to go catch up to Naruto. See you both." She waved to them as she disappeared in the same direction Naruto had gone.

Hinoe groaned and put a hand to her head. "Right, looks like I'm going to have to go over the notes I have for Naruto's lessons and modify them _again_."

Riou laughed lightly. "Don't try and act like you don't enjoy teaching him."

"I never said I didn't like doing so." Hinoe huffed. "I've never taught anyone like this before, and I do enjoy it, but that doesn't stop it being a lot of work for me."

Riou smiled as he shook his head. "I'll leave you to it then."

"Yeah, see ya." Hinoe waved him off, already working out a new schedule to get Naruto as up to scratch as she could for his trip to Iron Country in just two months.


	7. Preparations

AN: Another chapter, and the beginning of Naruto's immersion in the world of youkai. He will learn some valuable lessons soon, much like canon Naruto did when he came to some realisations (examples include Kakashi's team mates before the mission belief, and Haku's strength in bonds thing). The shikigami thing is my way of doing the massive clone onslaught without relying on kage bunshin (or whatever other bunshin takes your fancy). Using a different technique will lead Naruto to develop differently to how he did in canon, and as time goes on, the changes become greater and greater. Enjoy!

My forum link can be found on my profile, or you can use this: forum/Lupine-Horror-Behind-the-scenes-of-my-stories/139203/

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 7 - Preparations

Hiruzen _tried_ to keep a closer eye on Naruto after his talk with the boy, with the key word here being 'tried'. His crystal ball still refused to show him where the blonde was, and even though he remembered _exactly_ where Naruto had led them, neither he nor his guards could ever get back to where the boy's camp was.

He still attended school though, and went to the library rather frequently. The Hokage kept a rather close eye on what sort of books Naruto was reading, and found that they were mostly craft books and fiction. There were occasionally times Naruto would take out something else, like one on myths, legends, and religions of the Elemental Nations, and another on the geography of the continent and the different countries.

Even to Hiruzen's eyes, it only looked like a young boy who was already capable of looking after himself and looking at things he might be able to turn his hand to and how to do so. He'd seen no effort from the boy to make any new friends though, or if he tried to do so, it was when the Hokage wasn't watching him.

He'd wait though, wait and hope that Naruto made a friend. Perhaps it would happen when he joined the Ninja Academy, or perhaps before. Maybe, as he was wandering around the village, Naruto might bump into a Nara, an Aburame, or even a Hyuuga, and their personalities might mesh and form an unbreakable friendship.

Not that such a thing was likely, situations like that were reserved for fiction.

That didn't mean he would lose hope though, Hiruzen was, if nothing else, optimistic. In the meantime though, he had a village to run, and that was a lot work. Most of the Hokage's day was spent approving or rejecting various ideas that were put forward by various groups that handled different parts of the village.

While it wasn't quite a council, it was sometimes referred to as such. There was a representative of the merchants syndicate, who ensured that all goods sold in Konoha were of good quality and reasonably priced. There was a representative of Konoha's various educational institutions. Also there was a spokesperson for the Military Police, and one for the agricultural association, as well as a handful of others.

It was they who received the initial applications, reports, complaints, and so on. They handled what they could, and what they couldn't was passed on to the Hokage. Still, even with them reducing the amount of paperwork that arrived on his desk every day, it was still a sizeable amount, and kept him busy for hours on end.

He often lamented that he didn't have as much free time as he did as a jounin. He saw little enough of his family as it was, and that was without his current arguments he was having with his son Asuma. He tried to retire once already, and his successor had died shortly afterwards, leaving him to become Hokage _again_.

The problem here was, there wasn't anyone really suited to becoming the Godaime Hokage that Hiruzen knew of. As much as Tsunade's grandfather and granduncle had both been Hokages, she herself wasn't suited to it. She was easily angered, and let her emotions rule her. Jiraiya was even less suited to it, the man being very disorganised, and aside from his lecherous reputation, he had trouble handling his responsibilities as well.

Kakashi, Gai, Ibiki… there was so many with plenty of potential, but they just weren't right for the position. Hiruzen privately despaired of ever passing the hat on before he died. The first, second, _and_ fourth Hokages had all died defending their village, and while he would gladly give his own life for his village, the Sandaime would prefer a much more peaceful end himself.

Nevertheless, he'd hold onto his hat until he either died or found someone who could replace him.

xxxxx

Unseen by the Hokage, Naruto was actually learning something new from Hinoe. She had declared his use of heat to be 'passable', and his motion and light manipulation to be good enough for now. As she was leery of teaching him anything about sound, corrosive, or raw power effects, she instead started teaching him more about potions and youkai seals.

With potions, they had simply gone over which ones Naruto already knew, what ingredients could be substituted for others if they were unavailable, how that would affect the potion, and so on and so forth. That's not to say he didn't learn some new mixtures, because he did, but they focused on refining what he already knew before going ahead and learning something new.

It was actually the youkai seals that Naruto was rather interested in, more than anything else, because if you made a seal right, all you had to do was provide power to it, and it would do _exactly what it was supposed to do_ , with no more input from the user!

Hinoe had taught him the basic motion, light, and heat formulas, as well as a number of individual symbols and the 'grammar' of youkai seals. With this knowledge, he was able to expand his repertoire of seals himself, or even create them on the fly! Hinoe did tell him not to use any of them before she'd looked them over though, she didn't want him blowing himself up or anything.

They were learning a seal right then actually, a new one Naruto had never used before today.

The seal itself was composed of symbols for 'creation', 'domination', and 'spirit'. He was, in fact, learning how to create a type of shikigami, with these ones being artificially created spirits that would obey his instructions. Well, that was the theory at least.

Naruto didn't think Benio would _ever_ let him forget that the first time he tried to create a small group of shiki, he'd immediately lost control of three of them, which had proceeded to pick a fight with, and somehow lose to, a rather aggressive squirrel.

He could still hear her laughter echoing in his head.

Nevertheless, Naruto was quite proud of his shiki, even if they weren't particularly strong yet, creating them was the first actually combat capable technique Hinoe had taught him! Okay, so they were clumsy, weak, and stupid, but they would get better as Naruto got better at making them!

The shikigami took the form of large, black, blob-like people that looked really stretched out. They had white masks on where their faces should be, with two eye holes despite the shiki not actually possessing eyes themselves. Thankfully, the shiki actually had relatively human hands, and so could grip and hold things just fine.

This was especially useful as Hinoe had instructed Naruto to command his shiki to pick up thick and heavy branches to use as improvised clubs. What resulted was quite an intimidating sight, a dozen faceless, black creatures that stood around seven feet tall and held heavy improvised weapons. Most of them held their branches like clubs, but two of them had found relatively straight branches and held them like a staff.

"Now, Naruto, tell me anything you can notice about your shiki." Hinoe said to Naruto.

"Well, erm, they're actually doing what I told them to this time." He said. "They're all standing differently as well, I thought they'd all act exactly like each other instead of this. They're not moving either, just turning their heads whenever I move so they're always 'looking' right at me."

Hinoe smiled. "Good observations. Shikigami, at least correctly made ones, will do absolutely nothing unless you tell them to. The only exception is if you're attacked, in which case they'll attack your opponent and defend you. The 'differences' you're noticing are caused by small, random factors, and don't really make a difference.

"However, what you didn't mention is that some of them are having more difficulty than others just holding their clubs. That will clear up as you get better at making shikigami, but there are two… quick and dirty ways of improving them." She paused here, thinking of something, before deciding to ask Naruto if he could guess what those two things were.

"Well, there's three things that are used to make shiki, the paper I drew the symbols on, the ink I used, and the spiritual power I put into it." Naruto thought about it for a moment. "Two ways of improving them would be increasing the amount and density of reiryoku I use, right?"

"That's one way, yes." Hinoe admitted. "However, I was thinking of the _material_ aspect of this technique. Using more reiryoku _will_ make your shiki stronger, but it will also shorten their lifespan, unless you use something stronger than paper as a base. The ink is the other thing I was thinking of, or actually replacing it with your blood. While it won't make your shiki too much stronger like using more power does, it reinforces your binding on them, so you're less likely to lose control of them."

"If they work, why did you say they were 'quick and dirty'?" Naruto asked.

Hinoe huffed. "A properly skilled youkai can make much better shiki with the proper technique than an amateur who simply overloads the formula, and while using blood _does_ make it easier to control them, few youkai are willing to bleed themselves whenever they want to make a new shiki."

"Are shiki really all that common? I mean, as far as I know, you're the only one in the forest that uses them, or really anything that resembles a structured technique." Naruto couldn't help but wonder.

"There honestly aren't many that do things like I do." Hinoe confided in him. "The weaker youkai simply don't have enough power to make use of such things, and you'll find that most stronger youkai rely on their own natural strength, speed, or inherent abilities, as you'll likely see when you go to Iron Country."

"I will?" Naruto asked.

"Well, there's some local youkai that have natural techniques, like Madara and his purifying light, but when you go to Iron Country, you're likely to run into at least one Yuki-Onna while there. They have a natural aptitude for snow and ice manipulation, and rely heavily on that." Hinoe told him. "They are _very_ dangerous, so be careful if you do see one."

"I will." Naruto nodded. "It's starting to sound like Iron Country is especially dangerous with how many warnings everyone is giving me."

"That's because it is." Hinoe said. "The climate is quite harsh, and the youkai that make their home there tend to be quite a bit more aggressive than anywhere else in the Elemental Nations, though I don't know why. There's only a few places that are worse than there, and don't even ask me where those places are, I'm not particularly happy about you going to Iron Country as it is, but so long as you are well prepared, I will allow it."

"Is that why you taught me how to make shiki, so they could defend me?" Naruto asked, taking another look at his creations.

"It is." Hinoe said. "Before you go, I'm going to make sure you have plenty of pre-prepared shikigami on you. I'm also going to teach you how to combine light and heat to make a basic fire dart, and Riou will teach you how to infuse your reiryoku into your fists and feet to fight."

"Fire dart?" Naruto perked up in interest.

Hinoe raised a hand into the air, and a small flash of fire formed itself into a needle like shape about the length of her middle finger, which was promptly fired into the air.

"It's pretty weak, and won't do much more than sting most youkai, but it's something to base future things on." Hinoe told him. "It's most effective either against low class youkai, or cast as a cluster." Demonstrating the latter, she raised her hand again and cast the technique. This time, instead of a single 'dart', she launched roughly two dozen of them in a tight cone.

"That was awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, his eyes wide and a grin on his face.

"Yes, but it's still rather weak." Hinoe cautioned him. "It _should_ do more damage to a human though, they're not spirits like we are, so I don't want you practising it on anyone. Even then, I don't want you seeking out a fight with this thing, it won't do you much good unless you're using it as a distraction or targeting a weak spot like the eyes or something."

"I'm not going to Iron Country to look for a fight." Naruto sighed.

"I know you're not." Hinoe ruffled his hair. "However, you're still going somewhere dangerous, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to do my best to make sure you come back in one piece."

"Okay." Naruto grumbled to himself for a moment, before turning back to his shikigami. "Now, to practise telling my minions what to do!"

"Minions?" Hinoe raised an eyebrow. "Why are you calling them that?"

"It's what Madara said underlings are called." Naruto replied. "Is he wrong?"

"Not… exactly." Hinoe laughed. "Minions just isn't a very polite thing to call them. That's fine for shiki, but if you ever have followers of your own, it's probably best not to call them that."

"Okay, I'll remember that." Naruto nodded his head, committing Hinoe's 'lesson' to memory.

"You do that." She smiled. "Now run along and practi-"

"Naruto! Naruto! Naruto!" A group of excited kappa calling his name came tumbling into the clearing carrying bags of something over their shoulders. "We heard you had shikigami collecting tree branches for weapons, and we have something to make them better!"

"Oh, and what would that be?" Hinoe asked, raising an eyebrow at the group.

One of the kappa took the sack of their shoulder and tipped some of the contents out. What was in the bag, it turned out, was a load of bent and broken kunai and shuriken.

"We've been collecting the stuff that's been abandoned in the human training grounds." One of the kappa told her. "There's not much good stuff, but we were putting together a pack of it that Naruto could practise with. We didn't know what to do with all of the broken stuff though, but now we have an idea."

Another kappa nodded their head rapidly. "Yeah, yeah! We thought that the clubs the shikigami have would be better if we took some vines or string and wrapped all of the broken ninja stars around them. One of the good ninja knives could even make one of the sticks into a spear!"

Hinoe smiled at the group of kappa. "That is a good idea, I suppose. I _had_ been meaning to whittle down the branches Naruto's shiki had found, and then etch some seals into them to make them more effective, but adding sharp metal would make them more dangerous."

She then caught sight of Naruto's face, and saw how pale he looked at the sight of the metal. "However, as dangerous as it would be, it would also be very… messy. Instead of adding them to the clubs, why don't you help me carve and prepare them for the seals I will add instead, while Naruto practises making more shiki?"

"If you say so." One of the kappa shrugged. "But what are we going to do with all of this scrap metal?"

"Oh, I have an idea or two." Hinoe said. "Let's just set that aside for now though."

xxxxx

Once Naruto was away from Hinoe and the kappa, he managed to breath easier again. Having seen the broken shuriken and kunai, and imagining them wrapped around a club, he hadn't been able to get out of his head what sort of damage they'd have done.

He didn't know what it was, but the blunt force damage of a club, or the sharp cutting or piercing damage of sword didn't bother him anywhere near as much as imagining how a spiked or bladed club would mangle someone. Maybe it was just thinking about how flesh would be torn apart rather than cut, or bones broken in the case of blunt weapons, but he didn't think he'd have been able to look at the clubs if Hinoe had gone along with the kappas' idea.

He made an effort to drive that from his mind though, she had said no and right now he was supposed to be doing something else. Namely, he was to continue practising how to make shikigami as his were currently pathetic. Some of them had had trouble lifting a heavy branch, something the average dog could do.

Well, Hinoe had said putting more reiryoku into it would make them stronger, but they wouldn't last long if he did so. She also said it was easier to control them if he wrote the formula in his own blood. So, if he put those both together, he would get a stronger shiki that was fairly easy to control.

Picking up a piece of paper, which had been torn down into a piece roughly the size of his palm, Naruto used a clean knife to cut his left hand. He then dipped a calligraphy brush into his own blood and used his neatest hand-writing to draw the three required symbols on the paper, before adding the binding symbol that joined them together.

He channelled his spiritual power into it once he was done, and tossed it away as some indescribable black substance erupted from the paper, and began to form another shikigami, this one being closer to eight and half feet tall compared to the seven feet his others were.

The differences between this one and the others, aside from the extra height, were immediately obvious. Its movements were smoother, and it sketched a bow to Naruto, almost appearing to have some form of… respect for its creator. There seemed to be some sort of intelligence about it that the others lacked as well. So, Naruto decided to test them out.

He looked between his old and new shikigami and gave them their instructions. "Okay, a test… I've got an idea for one. Without leaving this clearing, you guys are going to fight, all twelve of the old against the one new guy. I'll be watching to see how you do, okay? Don't start until I say go."

With that, Naruto backed out of the clearing and climbed a solid looking tree. Now having a good vantage point to watch the coming fight from, Naruto counted down the start of the fight. "Five...Four...Three...Two...One...Start!"

Immediately as he said the last word, the initial dozen shikigami lumbered towards the newer one. However, its response wasn't to attack in turn. Instead, it dived towards the edge of the clearing behind it and to the left. When it stood up, it held in its hands a rather unwieldy stick of wood almost as long as it was tall and maybe six or seven inches thick.

Even the strengthened shiki was having some trouble swinging it. Apparently, overcharging it with reiryoku hadn't made it 'super strong' like he'd hoped – though maybe if he got better at making them, they'd be stronger then – but it was still about as strong as a somewhat muscled civilian.

Holding its improvised weapon with two hands, the newer shiki swung its weapon at the approaching older shikigami. It actually managed to get a rather solid connection on one of them, knocking it to the ground, but not destroying it. That happened when it lifted the branch up and slammed it down on the downed shiki.

As the other eleven older shiki stumbled towards their newer counterpart, Naruto watched as the 'dead' shiki seemed to dissolve, revealing the piece of paper it had been created from, which then rapidly dissolved as well. Damn, it seemed he couldn't reuse the talismans from 'dead' shiki. On the other hand though, it didn't matter if he lost them in fights, because enemy ninja couldn't copy what he'd done from the remains if there were none.

Naruto looked back at the fight to see that another two of the older shiki had been taken care of by the newer one. However, four of the older shikigami had gotten a grip on the branch the newer one had been using as a weapon, and it seemed those four were amongst the strongest of Naruto's original group, as they were successfully preventing their opponent from swinging its improvised club.

The remaining five older shiki were now in range of the newer one and began to tear apart whatever black substance they were made of. It was rather nauseating to see chunks of black 'flesh' – which looked like jelly now – being tossed about after being torn off something that was vaguely human shaped.

The newer shikigami was faltering now, being overwhelmed by numbers rather than skill or strength. It still managed to take down another four of its attackers before being 'killed' though. That left Naruto with five of the older shiki remaining, less than half the number at the start of the fight.

Naruto sighed. "Okay, so empowered shiki are definitely worth it, but they're no match for the average academy student unless I outnumbered them maybe ten to one or better." He mumbled to himself. "How then, aside from practising to make better shiki, do I improve them?"

Benio fluttered off his hair and sat on the branch beside him, shifting into her more human form. "The answer to that is obvious." She smirked. "If you're going to outnumber them anyway, make those numbers count for something, no? That newer shiki you made certainly knew how to think its way around a problem?"

"Huh?" Naruto confusedly tilted his head to the side.

Benio rolled her eyes. "What was the first thing it did at the start of the fight? It found a weapon, one with a _range_ advantage. Imagine a small group of shiki, say twelve, with spears. Now have them stand in a formation, maybe six wide and two deep, or four wide and three deep. That sounds much more effective already doesn't it?"

"It does." Naruto agreed. "So you think I should look up infantry tactics then?"

"It couldn't hurt." Benio shrugged. "It might be better for you to experiment though. I mean, ninja don't really fight together, do they? They use their own skills to win a fight, rather than work as part of an 'army'."

"I guess so." Naruto admitted. "I've heard of ninja using 'combination techniques', mostly wind and fire to make a bigger fire, but the only weapon ninjas use is the sword, and most ninja don't even use that, relying on throwing weapons or hand to hand, aside from jutsu that is."

"Look at samurai for inspiration then." Benio shrugged. "Heck, use _bandits_ as an example. They have to work together if they ever fight, and I'm _sure_ there'll have been at least one group of bandits that had some sort of success fighting ninjas."

Naruto contemplated that idea for a moment, before looking back at his shikigami. "I wonder if Hinoe knows any seals that would make shields harder to break."

"So, did I have a good idea or what, brat?" Benio smirked at Naruto.

"You did." Naruto nodded. "Now I've got to think about how to make it work, and then get good enough with my shiki so they can actually fight properly with their weapons. A spear and shield is useless if my shiki are too clumsy to use them."

"Then get to work practising then." Benio nudged him. "You do realise that the shiki are made using _your_ spiritual power, right? That's how they know who their master is, and it's common sense that if you are good at something, your shikigami should know what they are doing."

"Okay, I'll get to practising then." Naruto nodded his head, before slipping off the branch and started creating more shikigami, doing his best to make them as strong as he possibly could. He took extra care to draw the symbols as accurately as he could, and he also tried focusing on how he used his reiryoku to bring them to life, to see if he could improve them that way.

While he did this, Benio wandered off to tell Hinoe to make at least one short spear and shield for Naruto to practise with, and later more to arm his shiki with. They were sticking with clubs and staffs for now, they were simpler even than spears, but Hinoe did say she would look into it.

xxxxx

Two weeks before the break when Naruto intended to go to Iron Country, Naruto asked Hinoe where he could find Misuzu. If he wanted to get the youkai on his side, he had to set aside some time to do whatever test Misuzu would want him to do, and as he didn't know how long that would take, it was best to get it done before he was to head off to Iron Country.

It turned out that Misuzu wasn't too much deeper into the forest than Naruto usually ventured, and it didn't take him long to get there. He did notice a few youkai, one of which took the form of a frog, moving ahead of him, so it came as no surprise when he saw Misuzu that the youkai was expecting him.

What was surprising was just how massive Misuzu once, he was gigantic, much bigger than Madara! He was humanoid, with a human left hand and a hoof for a right hand. His face and ears were equine in shape, and he had a small – at least relatively small – pair of horns on his head, peeking out from under his long grey hair.

"It is about time you came to see me, human, I have been expecting you for some time now." Misuzu said.

"I didn't know that, I'd have come sooner if I'd known you were waiting." Naruto apologised.

"It is not a problem." Misuzu replied. "You had no knowledge of me until recently, and even then did not know I wished to meet you. You are here now, and that is what matters. Now speak, why have you come to me?"

"I intend to go to Iron Country soon, but I have been told that it is a dangerous place." Naruto told the youkai. "I have trained myself as much as I am able, but I remain weak. I had hoped to prove myself to you, and if I managed to do so, then I would ask that you watch over me during my time in Iron Country."

"You wish to prove yourself before asking a boon of me?" Misuzu said. "Commendable of you, to think of doing that before making demands of someone stronger than you are. As it so happens, there is something you can do to prove your worth to me, and if you should accomplish this task and survive, I will follow you to the north, and the Land of Iron."

"What task is it that you wish me to do?" The nervous six year old asked, being as polite as he could.

"There is a rogue group of youkai in the area." Misuzu told him. "They wander the continent, and devour any weak youkai they come across, most likely in an effort to become stronger. They attacked close by yesterday afternoon, and I was in the process of putting together a small team to take care of them. My 'test' is this; discover their whereabouts and eliminate them using only your own skills and abilities. Do this, and I will accept you as one of us."

"Is there any information you can give me to start with?" Naruto asked. "Do you know how many of them there are? How strong they are? How am I even supposed to identify them?"

Misuzu smiled, though even that was a scary sight with how large his mouth was. "One of the youkai here can show you where the attack happened, so you may search outwards from there. The youkai are weak, low class, and have only managed to kill others by ambushing them with greater numbers. We estimate that there are between ten and twenty youkai in the group. The 'leader' of the group is supposed to drag around a large wooden hammer."

"Thank you, I'll get right on that then." Naruto swallowed nervously.

This would be his first fight where there would be a definite degree of risk involved. He'd started sparring against his shikigami ever since he'd learned to make them, but neither he nor they were particularly skilled, and they were always stronger and faster than he was, what with him being six years old.

Still, he was as prepared as he could hope to be right now. He had a club that Hinoe had carved for him that would be an effective weapon against weaker youkai, and he had a small round shield as well. He had some pre-made shikigami in his pockets, wrapped up in packs of a dozen, ready to use. Each shikigami also had a club or staff each to fight with.

This was going to be nerve wracking, but it was also going to be doable. He was facing, at most, twenty rogue low level youkai, and he could spare a few packs of shikigami to fight them alongside himself, and while his shiki weren't particularly strong, they were better than when he'd first started making them.

"If you are ready, Eiko can show you where the last attack happened." Misuzu said, indicating a relatively human looking youkai who had pale green hair and sharp yellow eyes.

"Benio, you stay here." Naruto addressed the butterfly on his head. "I can do this, trust me. I'll see you later, okay?"

Benio transformed into her human form again and gave Naruto a concerned look. "Be careful, brat, otherwise Hinoe will kill me when I tell her what I'm letting you do."

"What will it take for you to stop calling me 'brat' all the time?" Naruto huffed.

Benio gave him an odd smirk. "Come back in piece and with an awesome story to tell and I'll think about it."

"See you later then, Benio." Naruto smiled at her, before turning around and leaving the clearing, following after Eiko.

He didn't see Benio's expression twist in concern once he looked away from her.


	8. A Test

AN: Another chapter, yay! Now here we have Naruto's first taste of combat, and he doesn't come out of it particularly well. He has ideas about how to make things work, he's fairly physically fit too, but he's also a short six year old child, with no experience of bloodshed or even proper spars. So while he accomplishes his task, he doesn't come out of it unscathed either. I hope the 'fight' scenes were written well enough, and that you guys enjoy the chapter.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 8 – A Test

Eiko led Naruto to where the last attack happened, and it was immediately obvious that it was the right place when they got there. Broken branches, squashed grass, dents in trees, and even some blood, though not as much as Naruto had expected. It was clear a struggle had occurred there, and Eiko provided some additional information.

"Nanako was a middle-class youkai, if only just." She said. "These bastards are getting bolder if they're going after those that are even that much more powerful than themselves, and as you can clearly see, the fight wasn't quite as easy as they were expecting it to be."

"It'll also be their last kill." Naruto told Eiko. "Youkai don't actually _need_ to eat, especially not each other, and that they choose to do so… it sickens me."

"Then stop them." Eiko's eyes and voice hardened. "Kill them. Crush them. Destroy them! Nanako was my friend, and to see this… I wish I was more powerful, so I could utterly annihilate them by myself." She spat.

"I will." Naruto reassured Eiko.

"Make sure that you do, human." She growled, before turning her back on him and leaving. When she was almost out of hearing range, Naruto thought he could hear muffled sobs coming from the youkai.

He ignored it for now though, he had a task to do.

Examining the scene of the attack, and using what tracking knowledge he had from living in the forest for over a year, Naruto managed to work out a few things that weren't immediately obvious. First off, there'd been some sort of trap set on the ground, probably a snare.

Climbing the trees, Naruto found several small scuff marks on the branches, which suggested that the youkai had waited until their target had been caught in the trap and then attacked them, a rather sensible idea all told. Still, there weren't enough scuff marks there to make Naruto think that _all_ of the attacking youkai had hidden in the trees.

He found more evidence of hiding places at ground level though, so he now knew that some of them had hidden there as well, and he began to construct a mental image of what had happened.

Nanako had wandered along, either following a route she usually took or just meandering around, and had set off the trap when she was caught in a snare. The youkai hidden in the trees were probably the first to attack her, and once they'd done their bit, the ones hidden at ground level probably rushed in and started their assault as well.

Disorientated, Nanako fought back, and despite being bound, managed to strike some of her attackers hard enough to knock them into trees and leave sizeable dents behind. Being at least partially bound, and likely concussed and bruised, she had then been overwhelmed by numbers. This was aided along by being bled out a bit, probably with claws judging by the blood splatter.

Straightening up, Naruto looked around, trying to see if he could see which way they'd taken their victim. It was possible that Nanako was still alive, and that they hadn't eaten her yet, but the possibility was still rather slim. However, the sooner he found them, the likelier it was that she would still be alive.

Unfortunately, Naruto wasn't really a very skilled tracker, or at least not good enough to hunt down youkai. Most of the rabbits and squirrels he'd killed had been caught in traps, and he'd only rarely caught sight of wolf tracks in the woods. It was at times like this that Naruto wished Hinoe had taught him how to change his shiki into birds or other animals, because they at least could have tracked by scent. Unfortunately, he wasn't skilled enough to do that yet, and he was stuck with vaguely humanoid shikigami for now.

Still, Naruto was adaptable if nothing else, and he could make do with what he had on him. He brought out a pack of shikigami talismans and activated them. He then sent the twelve shiki off around the area to look for anything that was out of place.

He joined them in doing so. Aside from it being more practical to have an extra person looking, Naruto believed that he shouldn't give orders that he wouldn't be willing to follow through with himself, even if he was only commanding shiki. The sole exception to this was suicide techniques, if he ever learned any, and that was something he would allow his shikigami to do in his place.

As he was looking around, Naruto heard a strange grunting growl. Looking around for where it came from, he quickly pinpointed the direction and headed off. He'd recognised the sound after all, it was the sort of noise his shikigami made, as they couldn't talk properly.

Indeed, when Naruto got there, he found that one of his shikigami had found some flecks of blood on some leaves. It wasn't much, and only really stood out because of the contrasting colours, but it was something. As the other shiki, attracted by the sound the first had made, gathered around, Naruto looked for the direction the initial attack had been in and mentally drew a line between the two places.

"Stay behind me, and tell me if you see something out of place that I miss." Naruto instructed his shikigami, as he began to follow the direction the blood flecks were in. He went slowly, so as not to miss anything, as there was precious little to follow as it was.

Thankfully however, while not the most skilled tracker ever, he was observant and alert enough to pick up on what was there. A scuff mark on a branch they'd walked over, a slight depression in softer ground, all of it added up to make a trail for Naruto to follow. None of it was as simple as following a set of footprints, but it was enough for Naruto to follow. He was thankful that youkai didn't hop through the trees like ninja did, because that would make it really difficult for him to track them down.

xxxxx

While Naruto was tracking down a rogue group of youkai, Hinoe was getting a visit from someone she hadn't seen in a while.

"Tsuyukami?" Hinoe glanced at the shrine youkai. "Haven't seen you around recently, is there something you needed?"

"Yes, actually, I'm in need of your assistance." Tsuyukami nodded. "You see, since Naruto is now set on being a ninja, I've been looking around and seeing what sort of thing ninjas do. I was rather surprised when I found out they weren't too much stronger than a well-muscled civilian, like a labourer or blacksmith. However, I found that they were many degrees faster than a regular human."

"Oh?" Hinoe continued smoking her pipe. "I guess that makes sense, I suppose. It's useless being able to punch a hole clean through a tree if you can't even touch your opponent. Then again, they have their 'ninjutsu' and 'genjutsu' techniques to use as well."

"Exactly." Tsuyukami nodded. "With Naruto becoming a ninja, you can also be sure that some of us youkai will be there to help him along the way. However, as we are, most of us would be useless against anything more than a genin, from what I've seen, and only the larger youkai would be able to do much more than Naruto himself could, especially if what I've heard about you teaching him to make shikigami is true."

"Hmm, I see your point." Hinoe murmured. "The kappa, for sure, will want to help him, and I will not abandon my student either. Madara enjoys being bribed with sweet food, and you know that if he passes Misuzu's test then the horse will want to prove his own worth in return. Lord Riou is also fond of our little blonde human."

"That is why I've been trying to copy one of the ninja techniques I've seen a lot of them use." Tsuyukami told her. "Unfortunately, I've had rather little success."

"What technique are you trying to emulate?" Hinoe asked.

"The Shunshin." Tsuyukami replied. "It's a high speed movement technique that allows them to almost teleport a short distance. If we could manage to use something like that, then we would be much more able to assist Naruto in the future, when he's fighting enemies that he really would need help with."

"True." Hinoe mused. "We'd need to improve our reaction times as well. It's useless moving at such speeds if you can't also react fast enough to make use of it." She paused in thought. "Tell me, how have you been trying to copy this technique?"

"I thought that they likely focus their chakra throughout their body or into their legs to make it work, so I tried both methods." Tsuyukami explained. "Doing the former, I became a bit stronger and faster, but nowhere near as much as I'd hoped, and doing so quickly exhausted me. Trying the latter, all I managed to do was kick myself in the face and break my leg. Still, it worked as a proof of concept at least."

"You… kicked yourself in the face?" Hinoe asked with a raised eyebrow, before bursting out into peals of laughter.

"Yes, yes, laugh it up. I'm sure you've made a few mistakes when practising something you didn't understand." Tsuyukami took the laughter good-naturedly, well aware of the humour in what happened.

Hinoe shook her head, but there was still laughter dancing in her eyes. "Yeah, I've had some pretty bad messes myself. Thankfully though, all of mine happened when I was by myself, and no one saw me grow a pair of pink and fluffy wings, turn my skin blue with green polka dots, or turn my arm into a giant crab's claw."

"So, do you think you can work out how to make the technique work?" Tsuyukami asked.

"I'm not sure… though given enough time, I _should_ be able to work something out." Hinoe replied. "It'd be easier if I knew how the humans do it, but it shouldn't be too complicated. Tell me, when the ninja use the technique, is there any blasts of wind or anything that you'd usually expect from something moving that fast?"

"No, just a cloud of smoke that seems to always happen when ninja use their jutsu." Tsuyukami told her.

"Then there's more to it than them simply moving quickly." Hinoe considered. "They have to account for air resistance, how they affect the surface their standing on, their own momentum, and the sudden stop they come to after the technique ends."

Hinoe contemplated all of these factors, and how complex jutsu really must be. The Shunshin for example, had to account for several things, one of the most important being actually _stopping_ moving. If a regular human was moving that fast and suddenly stopped, then they would suffer internal organ trauma from the impact their body parts would make when they hit the ribcage.

Hinoe sighed. "I'll see what I can come up with, but don't expect any results any time soon."

"So you have at least one idea then?" Tsuyukami interpreted her statement.

"I do, but I'll have to experiment with it." Hinoe replied. "I'll start off with several different seals that I'll stick on some shikigami, and see which ones are more effective. After that, I'll have to narrow down how reiryoku is flowing through the shiki, and _then_ I'll have to figure out a way to emulate that without relying on a seal. All told, it's a lot of work."

"I'm sure you'll manage." Tsuyukami smiled. "You're the only one of us that can really be called a scholar after all."

"Yeah, I'll manage." Hinoe rolled her eyes. "Now come here and take a seat. If I want to get this started I'll need to know what you have tried and what results you got."

"Sure." Tsuyukami agreed, taking a seat. "I'll tell you what I can."

xxxxx

Naruto believed he'd finally found where the group of rogue youkai were hiding out. What gave it away was the multiple trails that ended up there. From Naruto's limited knowledge, he came to the conclusion that they'd been there for a while now, and hadn't had as much success with their other traps as they had with Nanako. If they were going after isolated youkai, avoiding where they gathered in numbers, it kind of made sense that they wouldn't always get someone tripping their trap.

He had to be very careful now. While their traps were basic, if they were at all intelligent, then they would have set some up around their camp. On top of that, they might have guards or lookouts or something that might catch sight of him. Taking a deep breath, Naruto turned to the twelve shikigami currently with him.

"You lot stay here. If you see a signal, a fire dart fired into the air, I want you to rush the camp and attack. I'm going to set some more groups of shikigami around the camp and give them the same orders, okay?"

The closest shiki lowered its head in what might be considered a nod.

With that, Naruto left them there and went to do the same elsewhere with more shikigami. His hand strayed to his pocket, and he considered how many shiki he would need for this. He had twenty packs of shiki on him, and each pack contained twelve shiki.

He'd already used up one pack that he'd just left behind. Considering he wanted to have plenty of shiki to take with him to Iron Country, he had to be careful how many he used, as he could only make so many packs per day. He might regenerate slightly for some reason, but he couldn't just keep using his blood as ink all day long. Already he had a slight scar on his left palm, where he kept cutting himself to get the blood.

Well, in two weeks, he could make a few packs of shikigami, so using them now wasn't going to be too much trouble. It was better to overdo things than not do them enough. With that in mind, Naruto pulled three more packs of shiki out of his pocket, setting them up like he did the first group, and then kept one more in his hand as he climbed a tree.

Sneaking along a thick branch, and crawling from one tree to another, Naruto was able to get a good vantage point overlooking the rouge youkai camp, and what he saw made him freeze in place and turn pale as blood drained from his face.

He saw the rogue youkai gathered below, and there looked to be about two dozen of them. They were quite a bit taller than Naruto, though he _was_ only six years old, and they had vicious looking claws on their hands and feet. The leader was obvious as well, he was even taller than the other youkai, and had really long arms. Dragging along the floor behind him was a large, heavy looking wooden mallet.

What caused Naruto's reaction though was something else he saw. Tied up at the edge of the camp were three youkai that weren't part of the group. He almost threw up when he saw one of the rogue youkai rip a chunk of flesh from the side of one of their prisoners and then shove it into its mouth, leaking blood all over the place.

He needed to do something. Now!

Pulling one more pack of shikigami out of his pocket, so he held one in each hand, Naruto also slipped his small, round shield off his back and onto his left forearm. With a raw-throated yell, Naruto jumped out of the tree he was in, activating the shikigami talismans as he did.

He crashed into one of the rogue youkai, slamming it into the ground just as two dozen shikigami made themselves known around him. Raising his right hand into the air, the one with the 'flame dart' glove on, he fired off the signal for his other shiki.

"Attack them, defend the prisoners!" Naruto yelled his instructions to his shikigami, already charging head first towards the hammer wielding youkai himself.

The youkai were all bigger than Naruto though, and they had a longer reach and greater strength. This resulted in Naruto having to duck under a hammer swing that came flying towards him, and when he attempted to shoulder barge the leader, it only stumbled back a few steps.

Drawing the club that Hinoe had etched seals into, Naruto took a swipe at the hammer youkai's knees, and _this_ actually had an effect. The enchanted – for how else would he describe it? - club left a sizzling, scorch-like mark on the youkai's flesh. While not as much as he had hoped, it at least slowed the leader down, and would hopefully distract the other youkai as well.

There _was_ a reason he'd gone after the leader. He was a better fighter than his shiki were, even if they were all stronger than he was, and even a bit faster as well. If he managed to take the leader down, it would also demoralise its followers, making it easier for his shiki to take them down.

The youkai he was fighting lashed out with a kick to Naruto's chest, and the young boy felt the wind be forced from his lungs. He could also swear he heard his ribcage creak as well, though thankfully he didn't break any bones.

Trying to recover as fast as he could, Naruto kept his eyes on the hammer youkai, putting his trust in his shikigami to watch his back. He could hear noise coming from the forest around them, so the rest of his shiki should be there in just a few moments.

Still struggling for breath, Naruto's eyes widened when he saw the hammer youkai swing its weapon at him. Knowing he couldn't get out of the way, he put his shield up and braced himself for the hit as much as he could.

CRUNCH!

Naruto let out a yell of pain as he felt the hammer hit his shield. It hadn't broken, probably thanks to what Hinoe had done to it, but that didn't stop the force being transmitted into his body, and more specifically his shoulder, which was more than likely broken now.

His left arm hung limply, every movement it made sending jolts of pain through Naruto's body, not at all helped by the weight of the shield.

Ignoring it to the best of his ability, Naruto charged forwards, jabbing the hammer youkai in the chest with his club. Channelling as much of his reiryoku through it as he could, Naruto's efforts were rewarded with a loud, pained shriek from his opponent who reeled back from the strike.

Taking a quick opportunity to look around to see how his shiki were doing, Naruto was pleased to see that several of the rogue youkai were down, literally beaten to death with clubs and staffs. He was also pleased to see a group of shikigami surrounding the three prisoners with their weapons facing outwards. He wasn't quite as happy to see how many of shiki he'd lost though, each rogue youkai it seemed had managed to take out two or three apiece before being taken down themselves.

Luckily, things seemed to be going Naruto's way for the most part. With each rogue youkai taken down, his shiki had fewer enemies to deal with and could gang up on them more easily, and his shiki _did_ work together, which was what was making the difference here, as each rogue youkai was fighting as an individual.

Turning back to his own opponent, Naruto focused as best as he could. Ignoring the pain, he watched to see how his own attacks had affected his opponent. The hammer youkai was avoiding putting its weight on the leg Naruto had struck, and the mark on its chest looked bad, and seemed to be affecting its ability to breathe properly.

Charging forwards again, Naruto expected the hammer swing, and so stopped and jumped backwards. As the youkai tried to recover from over extending itself, Naruto approached again, dropping to the ground when it lashed out with a kick from its injured leg.

He wasn't able to get away unscathed though. A claw at the heel of the youkai's foot caught Naruto's head, easily drawing blood, and when the hammer youkai drew its foot back, it clawed Naruto's face with the talons at the front of its feet. However, Naruto was now in range himself and swung at the youkai's uninjured leg with his club, scoring a hit.

The youkai let out a pained yell as both of its legs gave way from underneath it, Naruto only just managing to avoid being squashed beneath it.

Taking advantage of his fallen opponent, Naruto ran up and started to smack the youkai over the head repeatedly with his club. He didn't stop until he felt it stop moving, and even then he kept on smacking it a few times just to make sure it was properly dead.

Looking around at the camp, Naruto saw the evidence of the fights between the other youkai and his shiki. He grimaced when he saw he was down to just fifteen shikigami, but comforted himself when he imagined how much worse it would have been had he not used shock tactics to disrupt them, and how much worse than even that it would have been had they been prepared for him themselves.

Still, losing fifty-seven shiki, on top of the injuries he'd sustained himself, only showed Naruto how weak he was compared to others, and just how far he had to go before he was anywhere near capable of looking after himself. Oh, speaking of taking care of himself…

Naruto put his club away and reached for a small first aid kit strapped to his lower back that he and Hinoe had put together for him. Drawing out several roles of bandages, he took one roll for himself to deal with his head injuries, and gave the others to the nearest shiki, telling it to take care of the injured prisoners, especially the one with a chunk missing from their side.

"Are you guys okay?" Naruto asked, hobbling over to the three of them, and noting that they all looked rather pale and tired.

"We will be now, thanks to you." One of them answered gruffly.

"No problem, but just to be sure, do you know if I got them all?" Naruto questioned them. "I don't want to leave any of them around to attack us from behind as we leave."

"I think you got them all." The gruff one replied. "I couldn't see too well with your shiki surrounding us, but I wouldn't worry much either way. If you took down the leader and most of the others, there won't be enough of them left to really do anything."

"That's good." Naruto sighed. "Now, I'm a bit confused by this, but why did they keep you all alive? I can understand them bringing you back to camp to eat, but not why they'd keep you around for much longer than that. No offence."

"None taken." The youkai shook his head. "Honestly, I can only guess why they kept us around. Maybe they knew of a way to make our flesh more potent when they ate it, or maybe they wanted to gorge themselves all at once. All I can say is that I'm glad they did so, otherwise I'd already be food."

"Right." Naruto pulled a small knife out and cut the bindings holding the prisoners. "Can you guys walk, or do you need my shiki to carry you?"

"I can walk, and I think she can." The male youkai said, indicating one of the other prisoners. "But I think our injured friend here's going to need some help getting around until she can recover."

"Right." Naruto nodded, looking around. He then gave his shiki instructions, telling them to gather materials together to make a stretcher. Thankfully, they were able to do so, using a large section of tree bark and several branches. The injured youkai was placed on this, with four shikigami carrying her.

The only male youkai there accepted the staff one of the shiki carrying her gave him, and walked beside Naruto as they made their way out of the rogue youkai camp, and back to parts of the forest Naruto was far more familiar with.

"I can't thank you enough for saving us back there, kid." He was saying. "I've never felt so bloody useless in all of my life, and when I thought my time was up, you just drop down in the middle of them all and save us. I heard what you told your shikigami, you prioritised protecting us first."

"It's no problem." Naruto told him. "I didn't actually know you were there to start with, but when I saw you tied up, I couldn't ignore it. These youkai sicken me, I don't understand why they'd want to resort to cannibalism to get stronger. It's just… it doesn't make any sense to me."

The youkai snorted. "You'll find that there's some people out there who only care about themselves, no one else, and they'll trample all over anyone else to get what they want. Some of them even think what they're doing is right, and that the result is worth it, but..."

Naruto frowned. "You sound like you're talking about something else there."

"Maybe I am." The youkai said quietly. "Sorry, it's just… I made some mistakes centuries ago, and when I thought I was done for, it made me think. 'What if I'd done this differently?' or 'What if I'd just not done that?' Let's just say that when I get back home, I'm going to be doing a lot of apologising, and I'm going to turn my life around."

"O-kay then." Naruto honestly didn't know what he was rambling about.

The youkai just gave him a crooked smile and sighed. "Never mind, kid, just something that's on my mind is all."

Naruto didn't say anything in reply, and they hurried along back to Riou's part of the forest.

xxxxx

Of course, once they were back, who was the first person Naruto ran into?

Benio of course, and Naruto was really confused for a moment about the look of fear in her eyes before she ran up and hugged him tightly. This actually put pressure on Naruto's left arm, reminding him that it was still dangling loosely at his side, and the hiss of pain he let out made Benio let him go and start going over his injuries.

"Benio, I'm okay, really I am." Naruto insisted. "I just got some scratches on my head, and… well, my arm will get better! Hinoe will know how to heal it faster than it normally would, so I'll be fine. You can stop treating me like a baby, you know!"

Benio scoffed. "I let you wander out into that forest looking fresh as a daisy. You wander back with a bandage wrapped round your head, your arm hanging useless at your side, and you're covered in blood. Oh, I can see exactly how 'fine' you are, brat!"

"Then don't shake me about like that!" Naruto retorted.

"Oh, you'll live, don't get worked up about that!" Benio shot right back. "You know what might kill you though? Going up against a bunch of youkai without anyone there to watch your back!"

"I had my shiki with me, I wouldn't have been able to do this without them." Naruto replied.

"Oh, yes, your shiki!" Benio yelled. "Which you only learned how to make just how recently? Yes, let's rely on a technique you're not very good at yet, how could that ever fail?"

"I'm alive, okay?" Naruto's eyes scrunched up as he tried to stop the tears.

"I know you are, brat, but how close did you come to dying?" Benio wrapped Naruto up in another tight hug.

The youkai that were watching this, mostly drawn by their yelling, felt rather awkward as the two stopped shouting at each other, and instead hugged each other close while crying. Most of them, deciding that they really shouldn't be there, disappeared off to tell Misuzu that the human had come back, successful apparently, and with injured youkai with him too.

Some of the rest guided the shiki carrying the injured youkai away so she could get some medical attention from someone that was able to help her heal and recover. This still left a fair number still watching Benio and Naruto cuddling together, tears leaking from both of their eyes.

They remained like this for quite some time, long enough that it began to get dark and night started to set in. It was also like this that Hinoe came across them, being directed there by some of the youkai who'd seen them once she realised that Naruto hadn't come back for the night to sleep.

Of course, aside from how close the two looked, one of the first things Hinoe noticed was Naruto's injuries.

Oh boy, would Misuzu get an earful when Hinoe next saw him.


	9. Heading Off

AN: Another chapter for you lot to read, and the beginning of the 'Land of Iron' mini arc. It shouldn't take more than two or three chapters all told, after which there'll be another mini arc before the Academy. There'll be one or two mini arcs during the academy, and then we come to graduation. Hopefully I can keep writing this well enough to keep you all interested, and keep it interesting as well! Ah, well, I can but hope, can I not?

Oh, also, there's now an omake thread for this story! Check out my forum, there's a link to it on my profile!

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 9 – Heading Off

When next Akiko came to visit Naruto in the forest, she was rather shocked to see his left arm being held in a sling, and what looked like mostly healed cuts on his forehead as well. She also noticed that the butterfly that usually sat on his head wasn't there, and given just how much time the two spent together, she assumed Benio was in what Naruto called her 'normal' form.

"Naruto, what happened to you?" Akiko exclaimed.

"Um, nothing." He replied evasively, but Akiko wasn't having it.

"And what sort of 'nothing' results in you getting injured, mister?" She asked. "Those look like claw marks on your head, and I know you're too good to get scratched by a bird caught in one of your traps."

Naruto looked sheepish for a moment, before explaining what happened and how he got his injuries. "Don't worry though, Hinoe has made some potions and creams to sort my arm out, and I'll have this sling off in a few days!"

Akiko folded her arms and glared at Naruto. "That was still a really risky thing for you to do, Naruto! What if you hadn't been as lucky, and what if you'd actually _died_ out there!? Most of the village might not like you, but I do, and I'm sure your youkai friends wouldn't be happy if they lost you either."

"They weren't happy about it themselves." Naruto chuckled. "Hinoe _really_ tore into Misuzu about it. He looked like a scared child in front of a teacher, and it got worse when Benio covered my ears. I wonder what Hinoe was yelling then? I was behind her so I couldn't even try and read her lips."

"Naruto, shut up for a moment and listen to me." Akiko silenced the young boy. "I know you're going to be a ninja, but that's no reason to be reckless. On the contrary, it's a reason to be _cautious_ , careful. It's a dangerous profession, and very few ever live long enough to retire. I don't want to see you die before your time's up, you hear me?"

"I understand, Akiko-sensei." Naruto mumbled, the concern she showed for him turning his cheeks pink. "It's not like I _have_ to be a ninja or anything, I mean, I could decide to become a travelling explorer or something, I really want to see more of the world."

"Oh, Naruto, you poor child. I don't think you really have the option of not being a ninja." Akiko told him.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked. "They might strongly encourage people to become ninja, but going to the academy is completely voluntary, isn't it?" Naruto then seemed to realise something. "Wait, this has got to do with that thing you can't tell me about, doesn't it?"

"It does." Akiko replied hesitantly.

She saw Naruto's eyes drift off to the side, and his forehead furrowed in a frown. He then looked back at Akiko with a strange look in his eyes.

"Hinoe says that the way you're talking, it's like I'm a biju host – not even those with bloodlines are forced to become ninjas – but that can't be right." He mumbled. "While I apparently 'feel' a bit like a jinchuuriki, it's different. Apparently I feel too 'incomplete' to be one."

Akiko looked surprised at that. She had thought he really was a host for the kyuubi, but the youkai thought otherwise? They'd know more about it than she would, she was just a civilian and barely knew even the basics of all of that ninja stuff.

"The Yondaime died defeating the kyuubi six years ago." She shrugged. "That's… really all I know for certain."

"That doesn't make sense though!" Naruto cried in frustration. "I read the history books as well, and apparently he used some sort of seal to summon the death god. Why would he do that though? It doesn't take a god to seal away a biju, and sealing biju away doesn't cost someone their life either! Just what did he do that he had to pay for it with his soul?"

"I think there's only one person who could tell us exactly what happened that day, and he's worse than dead." Akiko replied.

Naruto frowned. "No, the kyuubi was there too, and the youkai seem to think that I have a portion of its chakra sealed inside of me." He paused. "Maybe that's what the Yondaime did, separated the kyuubi from its chakra… Ah! That doesn't make any sense either!"

"It doesn't?" Akiko asked, confused. "I mean, if you could have loads of chakra on tap, isn't that a good thing?"

"Akiko-sensei, if someone were to 'separate' someone from their chakra, they'd eventually simply recover it. We _produce_ chakra, and that's not going to just stop if we lose what we have available." Naruto said. "So stealing the kyuubi's chakra would be a short term solution at best, and a _very_ short term solution at that."

Akiko shrugged her shoulders. "Then what could he have done?"

"I don't know." Naruto replied. "And I don't know how to find out either."

"Just be careful, okay?" Akiko told Naruto.

He grinned at her. "Hey, at least now I have a good idea what that 'secret' is, everyone thinks I'm the kyuubi's vessel, don't they?"

"There's a law that prevents me from confirming that, so I think I'll abstain from answering you." Akiko smiled.

Naruto huffed. "A village full of ninja, and it's a civilian that finds a way around the rules."

Akiko grinned. "As you said, it's a ninja village, even us little people had to pick up _something._ "

The two of them smiled at each other, before they began to laugh.

Unseen by the teacher, Benio and Hinoe smiled at the two of them.

xxxxx

Two days later, Naruto made the journey to the Valley of the End. He packed a small backpack for the journey, as well as some supplies to make more shiki to replace the ones he'd lost fighting the rouge youkai. He'd gotten into the habit of making several packs a day now, so he would have a stockpile of them.

Hinoe had explained how to create shiki in different forms, and Naruto had his notes to look back on, but he wasn't going to make any of them any time soon. The shiki he currently used were created with his own reiryoku, and thus emulated him to a certain degree. To create different shikigami, he'd have to 'flavour' his spiritual power when making the shiki, on top of adding an extra symbol when writing up the talismans.

The talisman portion of it was simple, he just added one extra symbol, he was using ones representing wolves and falcons himself, in order to create two new types of shiki, one for tracking and another for sending messages and aerial reconnaissance.

Just making the talismans wasn't enough though. When he'd first attempted to use them, he'd gotten a misshapen mutant hybrid of bird and man. The wolf ones were easier, but they still seemed stuck half-way between canine and human. They had the general body shape of a person, but with longer arms with clawed paws instead of hands and feet, a muzzle for a face, and triangular ears on their heads.

Oh well, all that meant was that he had to practise, practise, and practise some more.

Hinoe told him that once he had that down, she'd teach him more complex seals and might even start him on illusions as well.

However, that wasn't what was really on his mind at the moment. He was thinking about what Akiko-sensei had said. While she hadn't come right out and said it, she'd pretty much told him that everyone thought he was the kyuubi jinchuuriki. However, all of the youkai agreed that he didn't feel quite right for that to be true.

When they looked for the seal, and found it on his stomach, that pretty much confirmed that _something_ was sealed inside of him, and something quite powerful at that if the seal itself was anything to go by. Unfortunately, Hinoe didn't know enough about human seals to fully understand everything about the seal, but they had managed to work out a few things.

One, like all biju seals, the entire thing was based upon a chakra storage seal.

Two, the seal was constantly leaking a small amount of super dense chakra into his body.

Three, rather than the expected one, there were apparently _three_ consciousnesses within the seal.

Four, it was lucky that no youkai had attempted to possess him, as apparently the souls were linked to his own mind.

Five, there was some sort of lock on the seal that could be opened and closed like a valve.

It was that third part that really confused Hinoe. Why would a seal meant for restraining a biju have other ocupants? Or if it wasn't restraining a biju, but just a massive reserve of chakra, why would there be _any_ thinking creatures in there at all? The rest made sense at least, and the valve really interested Hinoe.

If they could figure out how to open and close it, that would give Naruto even more power than he already had on tap. He doubted he'd ever need such power, he _did_ already have massive reserves of spiritual energy, reiryoku, and physical energy, ki, so any more than that was simply overkill.

It wasn't power that was Naruto's greatest barrier at the moment, it was the _application_ of that power. Before he could learn powerful techniques, he had to learn weaker ones and build up from there. Not that Naruto was complaining or anything, he _loved_ what he was learning, and thought the techniques he currently knew were awesome!

Naruto huffed to himself as he made his way towards the Valley of the End as fast as he could. This would be so much easier if he could fly, but no, Hinoe said that was something youkai found themselves naturally capable of, and while she could figure it out to teach him, it would be _really_ difficult to do.

She was working on something else at the moment though. She said Tsuyukami had had an idea that she was making work, and that Naruto would really like it when she was finished, but the research needed to pull it off would take a long time to produce anything worthwhile.

Channelling reiryoku to his legs, Naruto sped up a bit, though not too much. Reiryoku, after all, was _spiritual_ power, not _physical_. However, Naruto was not going to mess around with ki until he could find out more about it. Youkai were spiritual beings that used reiryoku, which was essentially the polar opposite of ki.

Naruto sighed, frustrated. His reiryoku was getting easier and easier to manage, and he didn't know if that was a good thing or not. He knew that chakra was a mix of the two energies, spiritual and physical, and that when he'd first started, they'd been intertwined with one another. However, recently, it felt like his reiryoku and ki were… becoming separated from each other.

That made it much easier for him to use the skills Hinoe had been teaching him, but he didn't know how it would affect any human skills he might learn in the future. If worst came to worst, he might have to work out how to copy a technique and alter it to fit his circumstances.

Anyway, never mind that, he was off to visit Ran at the moment, he'd borrowed some more story books from the library to read to her. Hopefully she would like them, and maybe share a story of her own with him!

xxxxx

While Naruto was off visiting Ran the mizuchi, Hinoe was experimenting with seals, trying to get the shunshin to work for youkai. She was having rather limited success at the moment. Oh, she _could_ accelerate an individual's movement, but if she went above a certain threshold, then the shiki would start to show signs that would suggest internal damage in something with actual insides to damage.

Trying to go beyond that limit was proving a difficult obstacle to overcome. If she tried strengthening the body _before_ it moved, it turned the internals inflexible, causing worse damage than leaving them alone did. If she tried to add in a sort of air cushion at the end of the technique, then the shiki tended to bounce off it and crash into something.

It was frustrating knowing that this was a common ninja technique, and she was unable to figure out exactly how they did it.

Then again, a lot of ninja techniques didn't quite make sense either. For youkai, you had to know _how_ to do something, and then practise a skill until you were capable of actually doing it. For a ninja technique, all you had to do was know the hand seals they used and practise until you got it right.

Hand seals themselves were quite strange to Hinoe as well. She could understand using them as a mnemonic device to remember something and make something easier, but apparently the hand signs actually moulded a ninja's chakra. That just didn't make sense, how would your hands affect your internal energy?

That hadn't stopped her sending the kappa into the Ninja Academy and asking them to try and memorise anything they could from the teachers' demonstrations. It was from that she learned what the twelve hand signs were, what they were named, and a few other titbits, like the fact the snake hand sign was often associated with earth techniques.

Those hand signs hadn't helped her _at all_! Even using them felt weird, like she was trying to do one thing, and her reiryoku was being forced to do something else. No, it was _far_ better that she use what she was more familiar with, what the humans would call shape and nature manipulation.

Hinoe held back a wince as two of her newest batch of shiki slammed face first into trees, one of them doing so hard enough to 'kill' itself. Oh, why did human techniques have to be so nonsensical?

xxxxx

Ran the mizuchi smiled to herself as she heard Naruto read her the story called 'The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi'. Both she and Naruto got a laugh out of it, imagining and describing to each other what various characters might look like, and how Naruto shared a name with the protagonist.

"Hey, I may even be named after the character for all I know, this book was published before I was born after all." Naruto said. "I don't get why it's not more popular though. I mean, it just seems to draw you in, and you _want_ the guy to win, you want him to struggle past all of his problems."

"Who is it written by? Do you think they might have written more stories?" Ran asked.

"I asked about that at the library." Naruto replied. "It was written by one of the most famous ninjas alive today, Jiraiya of the legendary three ninjas. This is the only book of his in the public library though, the others apparently contain 'adult material not suitable for public display'."

"Adult material?" Ran asked. "Are you saying he stopped writing stuff like this and started writing erotica?"

"I guess." Naruto shrugged. "His other books, the 'Icha Icha' series apparently, are supposed to be way popular though, so maybe he's just writing something that sells better."

Ran sighed – which was quite something considering her size – and shook her massive head. "Pandering to the public's desires, an unfortunate flaw many authors suffer from. Though I suppose it is how they get paid, and appealing to the greater majority would make them more money."

Ran considered things for a moment.

"I know! Why don't _you_ write something, Naruto? You could even write down all of the stories I know of." She seemed to get rather excited at that. "Imagine that! Spreading wonderful stories to the distant corners of the continent. Oh, how amazing would that be."

"Me write something?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"Of course." Ran nodded her head up and down. "You might even like it. It's something else to do after all, isn't it? Hobbies are good for children, at least I think they are, and writing is a… a… creative talent thing, it would help exercise your mind, wouldn't it?"

"I guess it would." Naruto admitted. "I don't know how I'd get it published though, maybe the old man would know something..." He paused. "Of course, that'll have to wait until I come back from Iron Country at least."

"Iron Country?" Ran interrupted him. "Why would you want to go _there_?"

"I heard that most weapon tsukumogami call that place home, and if I'm to become a ninja, I need to learn how to fight. I'm hoping that one of them would be willing to teach me what they know." Naruto replied.

"A… ninja?" Ran asked hesitantly. "You want to be one of those killers… why?"

"Apparently, I don't actually have much of a choice about it." Naruto told her. "It's better to go willingly than be dragged into it, and I don't want to be like the ninjas fighting in Water Country at all. If I fight… I want it to be because I'm protecting those I care about, or defending myself and my home."

Ran raised herself higher out of the water until she was at the same height as Naruto, her large eyes looking right at the small six year old child. As uncomfortable as he was with the silent stare, Naruto didn't move and allowed Ran to look for whatever it was she was searching for.

"A defender, a protector… a far more admirable person than one that kills simply because they are told to do so." Ran mused. "Do not worry, Naruto, I do not think less of you for wanting to learn how to protect yourself and others. It would be a different case if you thirsted for bloodshed."

Naruto was silent for a few minutes.

"You know, I actually found out what was going on in Water Country." He eventually spoke. "Apparently, the Mizukage has decided that bloodlines are evil and are part of the reason behind shinobi wars. He's trying to wipe them out, every last one. The civil war has him and his loyal ninjas on one side, and the bloodline faction and their sympathisers on the other side."

Ran huffed. "A pointless slaughter then. One's natural abilities do not dictate their disposition, and to think otherwise is foolish."

Naruto nodded his agreement. "Yeah, and it's really weakening Kiri's forces. While there aren't as many bloodline clans there as somewhere like Konoha, it's still a sizeable chunk of their ninjas. With them killing regular ninjas in retaliation as well, I don't really see how Kiri will survive as one of the five great Ninja villages, or even at all really."

The two of them fell into silence for a while, both of them watching a beautiful sunset together.

Just as the last rays of the sun began to disappear, Ran let out a loud, sighing breath.

"Naruto, when you go to Iron Country, I will accompany you." Ran told him. "In return… in return, there's something I'd like your help with. There's a youkai I want dead. Would you be willing to assist me?"

"Why do you want them dead? And no offence, any youkai you can't handle yourself isn't something I can really do anything to." Naruto frowned, lifting his injured arm. "I couldn't even handle a small group of low-class youkai, even _with_ the back up of my shiki."

"The youkai I want dead could be considered the lord of a chain of islands in Water Country." She told him. "His 'subjects' live in fear of him, worried that they might be the next ones he eats. He's obsessed with power, you see, and envisions himself as the ruler of all youkai." She paused here. "He believes that such a strong ruler should have a powerful… mate, I believe that's the most appropriate term at least. He wants me to be that for him."

"I didn't know youkai had 'mates'." Naruto frowned.

"We don't." Ran replied. "It's a human concept that he's adopted. Youkai simply do not reproduce like humans and animals do."

"O-kay. I guess I can get behind the idea of stopping someone like that, but it still stands that I'm far too weak to do anything to him." Naruto told her.

"It doesn't have to be any time soon, Naruto." Ran sighed. "He might have adopted some human ideas, but he's still a youkai, and decades mean nothing to us." She chuckled. "I also think you're underestimating yourself, and I believe you have the potential to be truly great one day. I just ask that, when the time comes, you are willing to help me stop him."

"I will." Naruto quietly promised her.

The two of them remained silent for the next half hour, until the sun had completely disappeared from the sky, whereupon Ran took him back to the village herself.

xxxxx

Several more days passed, and Akiko found herself once more going to see Naruto in his little camp. His arm was out of its sling now, and he had a wood-frame pack next to him. He also had a small pile of stuff that he was checking off against a list to make sure he had everything he would need in Iron Country.

She wasn't particularly happy about him going so far away, but at least this time he had three powerful youkai accompanying him, though she wished she could see them, even if only for a moment. He had Misuzu, a powerful horse youkai, Madara, an inugami, and Ran, a mizuchi.

"Okay, I've got enough food to last me a week. I have a small tent to sleep in. I have my cooking gear. I have spare clothes. I have furs because it's going to be damn cold, and I've got my first aid kit too. Have I missed anything?" Naruto checked everything over. "I need to fill up my water bottles before I go, but I _think_ that's all I need."

"Have you got a weapon to defend yourself with?" Akiko asked. "I know you have help going with you, bit it's better to be safe than sorry."

"I've got my club and shield, don't worry about that." Naruto replied. "I don't intend to get into any fights unless I absolutely have to."

"Good." Akiko nodded her head.

"Well, goodbye then, sensei, I should be back in a week." Naruto bid her farewell.

"Stay safe, Naruto." She said, taking a step back.

A gust of wind threw some dirt into her eyes, and when next she opened them, the blonde boy had vanished.

xxxxx

In the air and riding on Madara's back, Naruto couldn't help but be awed by the sight of the land laid out below him. Despite having seen it like this several times before, it still remained one of the most amazing things he'd ever seen, and he reaffirmed his desire to learn how to fly himself, one way or another.

He opened his mouth to say something to Benio, before he shut it, remembering that she'd had to stay behind. The north was too cold for her, and if she had gone with him, she would have been far too weak to really do anything at all. Neither of them had been happy about it, but it was what it was, and so she had stayed.

Instead, he made conversation with the three youkai currently with him.

"So, does anyone have any idea where I should start looking in Iron Country?" He asked.

"There are two places I know of where youkai gather in the Land of Iron." Misuzu told him. "Deep underground, in the abandoned mines and old tunnels, or in the shadows of the Three Wolves mountains. You should start your search there, see if any of the weak youkai can point you in the right direction."

"Right, I'll do that." Naruto nodded his head. "I just hope I don't have to go too deep into the tunnels, you guys are too big to follow me down there."

"If anything happens to you, Hinoe will skin me alive." Misuzu snorted. "Even if I am stronger than her, she scares me more than anything I've ever come across before."

"That's because she's got something you lack, namely brains." Madara mocked Misuzu.

The horse youkai glared at Madara. "If you didn't have Naruto on your back right now, we'd see just how warm a fur coat you would make for me to wear."

"If you really want a fur coat, you must be even less intelligent than I took you for." Madara shot back. "You live in the Land of _Fire_ , the second hottest country around, only beaten by the deserts of Wind Country."

"And maybe you should move to Fang Country, isn't that where all the rabid dogs go?" Misuzu retorted.

Naruto winced at that. Madara was an inugami, and he knew what that meant. After all, an inugami was created through a rather cruel ritual. A common dog must be buried up to its neck, leaving only the head free, with a bowl of food and water placed just out of reach. After several days of this torment, as the dog is about to succumb, the head must be cut off and then buried beneath a busy street.

After at least a week, both the head and body must be dug up and then placed in a prepared shrine. The dog would then awaken as an inugami, often under the control of the one who created it, and would be used as a curse, being the cause of much misery, criminal activity, and murder.

That Madara was as rational as he was, despite his nature, was a testament to his own will, and quite possibly his age as well. He must have either had an immense sense of self to fight through his rage and aggression, or it was tempered by time and living.

Misuzu's comment was therefore rather harsh. The fact Madara didn't immediately go for the horse's throat was rather commendable on his part, and that he only replied with more mockery, albeit more insulting than before, was also a credit to him.

Naruto ignored the two of them though. Neither would listen to him, and he'd been told that the two of them had been like this with each other for centuries. Letting their words flow over him, he focused instead on making sure they were heading in the right direction and didn't actually go too far.

It would be just his luck that the youkai would be too distracted by their argument, and complete miss Iron Country on their way past.

Ran passed her time listening in amusement to the two bickering youkai. While the two obviously didn't like each other very much, both of them were working together to watch over a human. Oh, she knew that one had been bribed with human treats, and the other was honouring a promise in accordance with his own pride, but it was still something to see multiple high-level youkai work this closely with one another.

The further north they got, the colder the weather turned, and with how high in the sky they were, Naruto could clearly see his breath. Pulling his fur cloak around him – something that was simple enough for him to make at his current skill level – he channelled just a small amount of reiryoku into it and warmed it up slightly.

His eyes glittered though, as he was once again seeing more of the world than just the village and forest around it. The colours shifting as they flew over one country after another entranced him, and the landscapes he was seeing brought a look of wonder to his face.

Maybe he should take up painting, though he doubted he'd ever be able to properly capture the sights he could see on canvas. He might get the colours right, but it just wouldn't be as vibrant, and no one looking at it would be able to smell the sharp air, feel its chill against their faces, or hear it blowing around them.

He was distracted some time later as they began to descend, and Naruto focused ahead and downwards, where three large mountains loomed ominously. All three were covered in snow, as was the land below, though he could see what appeared to be several villages or towns scattered about the place as well.

That wasn't where they were heading though.

They were going directly to the Three Wolves mountains.


	10. In the Snow

AN: The first chapter fully set in the Land of Iron is here! There'll be only one more, perhaps two, before some more 'filler'-esque stuff, and then another mini-arc before Naruto gets to the academy, whereupon there'll be two mini-arcs once again, and then we're onto genin days! Yay! I hope you guys like this chapter, and I must admit that it was very difficult to write, which contributed to it being longer between updates. In trying to write something almost entirely original, I've had to do a lot of thinking and working things out, so I hope you appreciate it! Anyway, it is what it is, now read it my minions!

There's a forum link on my profile page.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 10 – In the Snow

Touching down at the base of the mountains, Naruto got off Madara's back and looked around. His first thoughts were about how desolate the place was, and how did people manage to live up here? Seriously, it was summer and all he could see was snow!

"Can you guys sense any youkai nearby?" Naruto asked.

Madara sniffed at the air. "If they're not here now, they were no more than twelve hours ago. I can't smell anything high-level, but this _is_ Iron Country, so don't underestimate a youkai just because they don't have the greatest amount of raw power."

"Got it." Naruto nodded, looking at the side of the mountain sheltered from the wind. He could see some darker patches of mountainside, which were likely cave entrances. The reason he wasn't entirely clear if they really were caves was due to the heavy snow that was falling and obscuring his vision.

He made his way over that way, a pack of shikigami in each hand, and mentally preparing to cast a fire dart, as a distraction if nothing else. He was also mentally berating himself for only just now realising that with his shikigami dog-piling his opponents in fights, he'd have been better off learning how to use a bow and arrow, javelins, or some other form of ranged weapon.

Maybe he could even alter the fire dart or something? Making it longer and hotter might work, and it wasn't like fire darts didn't cost a pittance in reiryoku. He'd have to experiment with a 'fire javelin' though, and not while he was in Iron Country, but back in the forest where Hinoe could tell him if he was doing something wrong, or even if the idea was at all viable.

Looking at the nearest cave, Naruto grimaced. It was far too small for even Madara, the smallest of the three with him, to fit in there. That would mean he was going to have to go in there alone if he was to have a look around, and he well remembered what had happened the last time he'd gone into a youkai hotspot alone.

"You guys wait here and be ready. If I'm attacked, I'm just going to leg it back out here, screw trying to fight by myself." Naruto said.

"A wise decision." Ran told him. "We'll be ready for trouble, don't worry."

"It's not you guys that I need to worry about." Naruto muttered under his breath.

Reaching into one of the side pockets of his backpack, he pulled out the light ball he'd practised lighting up and held it in his hands. Making sure that his left hand glove was the 'force blast' one and the right one was the 'fire dart' glove, he headed into the mouth of the cave.

The light ball, held in a small string net around Naruto's neck, lit the cave up. The shadows swayed and danced, drawing the six year old child's attention, no matter how much he tried to ignore it. Still, even with the shadows moving, Naruto couldn't see anyone in the entry of the tunnel.

Moving deeper in, he kept his eyes peeled for anything moving, yet he still saw nothing. Even when the tunnel opened up into a cavern the size of a classroom, he didn't find any signs of habitation. Crouching down to check out the ground, he saw that it had been worn down and made relatively smooth.

Naruto frowned. Madara had said that there had been youkai around this area recently, if they weren't still there, and he _thought_ that the floor was smooth because of centuries worth of youkai footsteps. Had he just picked the wrong cave to have a look around in?

Checking the rest of the caverns connected to that one tunnel, and finding nothing alive, Naruto left it and looked to Madara who was still waiting on him.

"Can you check around the caves, see which ones smell of youkai the most?" He asked the inugami.

Madara rolled his eyes. "Very well, if you insist." Madara groused, before doing as Naruto had asked.

"Is everything okay, little one?" Ran asked, seeing that Naruto was rather twitchy.

"I don't like this place, it's too quiet." Naruto admitted. "I'm much happier in a forest than I am here, and the caves are creepy as heck too. I've got this weird feeling crawling up my spine as well. I don't know what it is, but something seems… very wrong."

Ran looked around for a moment before replying. "Having three such powerful and unknown youkai appear without warning is certainly a reason our weaker kin might hide themselves, but you are right, it is quieter than I expected it to be."

Naruto didn't have anything to say to that, and simply waited for Madara to be done with his sweep of the cave entrances. It didn't take the inugami much longer for him to narrow down which tunnel entrances smelled most strongly of youkai, but when he told Naruto which ones did so, he seemed to be trying to figure something out.

Heading into one of the tunnels himself, Naruto wasn't sure if it was his mind playing tricks on him, but he could swear that there was something different about this one compared to the last one he had tried, and he wasn't entirely sure if it was a good kind of different either.

Walking even more cautiously than he did before, Naruto looked at _everything_. It might have been nerves or something, but he looked at every foot of floor, walls, and ceiling as he walked down the tunnel. He saw where the floor had been worn down with footsteps once again and all sorts of other things, but it was when he got to the open caverns that he stopped and stared.

Blood, bodies, dead youkai. The smell then hit him in the face, and he found it wasn't as disgusting as he'd thought it would be. Maybe that was because of how recent the killing was done, Madara _had_ said that there had been youkai around as recently as half a day ago.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto began to search through all of the dead youkai. Maybe he'd be able to find a survivor amongst the corpses, someone who'd pretended to be dead, or even someone who was severely injured rather than actually being deceased.

He worked quickly, going from one body to another and checking for signs of life, moving on as soon as he realised they truly were dead. With each corpse he checked, Naruto became more and more frustrated and upset. From what he could tell, all of these youkai were low level, and none of them looked like fighters either. Why kill them all like this? It was just senseless slaughter as far as he could see.

Leaving the tunnel as soon as he was finished, he asked Madara which other caves had smelt the strongest of youkai. Seeing his agitated state, Ran asked him what was wrong.

"They're dead." He told her. "At the back of the cave, against the wall, they were slaughtered trying to hide from whoever or whatever did this."

Madara sniffed. "We told you that Iron Country isn't a peaceful place, kid, I'm not surprised by this myself."

"Why though?" Naruto asked. "Why are they doing this? I can understand fighting, people fight over all sorts of things, but these guys weren't fighters, they were… just like civilians, and they were massacred."

Misuzu was the one to answer the blonde. "Some youkai are consumed in rage and blood-lust. Most civilised youkai reject such beasts, but they still need somewhere to go, and it is in Iron Country that they gather. Here there is constant fighting, assuaging their baser desires, and here they thrive."

Ran nodded her head. "The ambient energy here is also rather dense, which in itself is an attraction to all youkai, though especially low-level ones, as it allows them do more than they would otherwise be capable of. The weaker youkai group themselves together because there is strength in numbers, increasing their chances of survival."

"I get it, even if I don't really understand everything." Naruto sighed, before frowning. "Wait, how does there being dense ambient reiryoku make someone stronger? You cast from your own reserves, so it shouldn't make a difference, right?"

Ran shook her head. "It is possible to draw power into yourself from an outside source, or even from the environment itself. However, only weak youkai tend to use this ability, as it is considered a crutch and something to disdain. There are risks as well, youkai have been known to… mutate when they absorb natural energy incorrectly, and it affects one's temperament as well, making them quick to anger and rage."

"Which isn't so much of a problem where everything is full of hate and violence." Naruto finished off.

"Correct." Ran nodded. "So now, with this group of youkai dead, what do you wish to do next?"

"I've still got to check for the other caves for survivors." Naruto said, already heading to the next tunnel entrance. "After that… well this group of youkai isn't going to be the only one around, right?"

xxxxx

Searching through _all_ of the caves and tunnels around the area took the rest of the day. To Naruto's sorrow, they didn't find any youkai still amongst the living. They did find a small number of scrolls written in the youkai language, and lacking anyone else to give them to, Naruto put them into his own backpack to look at later.

"It's getting late." Naruto said. Glancing back at the caves, Naruto considered staying the night in one of them. It would be the easiest and simplest way to get away from the cold, but he was rather uneasy about staying there when so many youkai had died inside, and so recently as well.

Deciding on a compromise, the blonde child set up his tent up against the rock face, where it was _mostly_ protected from the elements. He then set up a small tripod and cooking pot, inside of which he tossed some cut up smoked meat, wild vegetables, and mushrooms from his pack.

It was the work of a few moments to collect enough fresh snow to fill the pot as well. After that he cast a fire dart into his hand and held it beneath the pot, pumping enough reiryoku into it for it to be hot enough to do what he needed it to.

Misuzu, Madara, and Ran gathered around Naruto as he cooked something for himself to eat. All three kept an eye out for anything, youkai or otherwise, that might come across them and think about attacking. Not that such a thing was likely with three such powerful youkai working together, and it wouldn't end well for any that _did_ attack if any were that foolhardy.

As the food cooked, Naruto sat back against his backpack and looked at the sky. He'd have liked to make a start on reading those scrolls he'd found in the caves, but right now wasn't the best time, especially as one of his hands had to be kept under the pot and with a fire dart cast to cook his supper.

His thoughts turned to the dead youkai in the caves behind him… and then moved onto the ninja profession.

When it came to ninja, 'normal' people had two major opinions on what they were like. On one side, you had them as monstrous beings that killed, poisoned, manipulated, black-mailed, and did everything else that they could to improve themselves, justifying it as the 'greater good', or as a 'necessary evil'.

The other 'faction', as it were, had ninjas being almost saintly protectors that use their amazing powers to protect their villages and save people. They made ninjas out to be heroes that went out of their way to make everyone's lives better, brighter, and happier.

From what the old man had told Naruto, neither one was true. Ninjas were mercenaries, but they provided so many more services than that. C rank missions were _the_ most common type of mission by a long way, but there were so many different types of jobs that were considered C rank that it was hard to pin down exactly what it meant.

A C rank mission could be a delivery, fetching a particular object and taking it to a specific location. Courier ninjas were almost a village themselves, this being one thing the different villages collaborated on because of how much border crossing was involved. Other C rank missions included escorting low risk clients, searching for items, investigations that required specific skills, even manual labour was something ninjas were occasionally hired for.

In all honesty, most ninja were neither heroes nor villains, but just people making a living.

That was until war reared its head. There had been three shinobi wars, and all three of them had been in the last half a century. Before the formation of the hidden villages, there had been the warring clans era, and that was an even more bloody and violent time.

It stood to reason that another shinobi war would occur in Naruto's lifetime, and quite possibly several of them, assuming he survived the first one. The thing is, Naruto didn't know whether he could so callously take another's life. When he knew for a fact that the ones he was fighting had done, and would continue to do, bad things, he could fight and kill.

He had, after all, not shed a tear for that rogue group of youkai he'd wiped out. While he'd felt the bile rise in his throat at his first kills, other than the small animals he'd killed for food and their skins, he hadn't felt ashamed or horrified that he'd taken another's life. Instead, he'd been relieved, both that he'd survived the encounter himself and because he'd been able to save their future victims.

He didn't know why, but he felt strange inside because of that. It was like a part of him was rebelling against the thought of killing and bloodshed, while another part of him accepted that it might be necessary in the future. Neither conflicting desire inside of him seemed to want blood and death, but they had seemed divided on what was acceptable and what wasn't.

Naruto sighed. Such deep thinking didn't suit him. He'd be happy being able to look after his precious people, learning new and awesome things, and seeing the world, maybe even exploring beyond the borders of the Elemental Nations? After all, if the world really was round like they taught in school, then there were probably other continents like the one he lived on, right?

xxxxx

The following morning, when Naruto crawled out of his tent, he found that it was snowing lightly. This was an incredible sight to him, as while he had known about snow, and even seen it laid on the ground when he'd gotten to Iron Country, this was the first time he'd seen it fall. Fire Country, after all, was far too warm for it to snow.

"It's beautiful." He murmured, and he meant it too. The snow was just so white and pure as it slowly fell from the sky.

"It's cold." Madara huffed.

"Oh, grow up, you have fur, don't you?" Ran sighed at him. "You're acting like a puppy."

Misuzu chuckled. "Not quite. A puppy would be wagging its tail and chasing the snow." He gave Madara an amused look. " _Are_ you going to 'act like a puppy?'"

"Oh, get slaughtered, horse." Madara growled.

Naruto mostly ignored their bickering as he packed away his tent and pulled out a sandwich to eat as his breakfast. As he munched on his food, he looked around and wondered which direction they should head in. He _could_ head towards the nearest human settlement, it wasn't uncommon to find lesser youkai around humans, and besides that, rumours, myths, and legends could give him a clue about where to find other youkai.

On the other hand, youkai also gathered together in groups away from humans. His camp in the forest back home was a fair distance away from Konoha proper, and these caves were nowhere near human civilization either. It was rather noticeable, for any that bothered to think about it, that the youkai groups that lived away from humans did have more higher level beings amongst them than the ones that lived near humans.

Deciding to leave it to chance, Naruto began wandering in a random direction. If he came across a human settlement then he'd go there, and if he came across a youkai first, then he'd try and talk to them. Behind him, the three youkai continued to talk amongst themselves, easily keeping pace with the much smaller boy.

Naruto kept walking, and several hours after he'd set off, he noticed the snow was getting heavier. He hoped it wouldn't become a blizzard, because if it kept up then he'd have to make a camp, and it would be a lot harder to cook some supper if it was snowing badly, not to mention the fact that setting up a tent in a blizzard really didn't sound very fun.

"Naruto, stop a moment!" Ran called out suddenly.

Doing as she said, the blonde looked back at his youkai escort curiously.

Ran's eyes were narrowed, and she was looking around the place as if she was trying to find something she'd only caught out of the corner of her eye. Misuzu was stood tall and imposing behind Naruto, looming high overhead. Madara was standing firm, his nose twitching constantly, like he was searching for something like a regular dog would.

Deciding to check things out himself, Naruto turned on the spot, looking to see if he could see anything out of the ordinary. Unfortunately though, all he could see was white. There wasn't even a hill or a copse of trees to break up the flat, white landscape.

"What did you see?" Naruto eventually decided to ask.

"Nothing." Ran answered. "At least not at first. This snowstorm is natural, but a moment ago, I could swear that there was something else influencing it."

"There most likely was, I noticed it as well." Madara agreed with her.

"As did I." Misuzu added.

"Could it be a Yuki-onna? Hinoe warned me about them before we set off for here." Naruto asked.

"The women of ice aren't the only things that have an influence over cold weather." Madara told him. "However, they are amongst the most dangerous youkai to male humans there are. Males, yuki-otoko, are rather rare, and not very pleasant regardless. Rather than being human in appearance, they take the form of large, ape-like creatures covered in thick, shaggy hair, and they are _highly_ territorial."

"Yuki-onna themselves are, as a rule, not very fond of their male counterparts." Misuzu continued on from Madara. "They see the human form as being far more appealing. However, while yuki-onna _can_ be impregnated like a human female, humans really cannot survive being intimate with them, and their bodies aren't exactly conducive to bearing children, so actual births are very rare."

Ran finished off the explanation. "You are an even more delectable target for them than regular humans. Because of your ability to see us, some might think – and it may even be true – that you could possibly survive such a coupling, and be up for multiple acts of copulation, thus increasing their chances of pregnancy."

"Oh..." Naruto didn't really know what to think of that. He knew that children weren't brought by a stork, nor did they 'magically' appear out of nowhere, and knew vaguely what was needed to make a kid, but to hear that something might want to do that to him, with a decent chance of it resulting in his death, was something else. "Um, wouldn't they leave me alone though? Don't you have to be so old before… that kind of thing is even possible?"

"And why couldn't you reach that age after being captured by them and groomed to fulfil a… service to them?" Madara asked. "From their point of view, that would be a lot better than seeing you just walk away, possibly never to return, would it not? There are few enough yuki-onna as it is, and their race could face extinction within the next millennia or two if their numbers aren't boosted."

"The beast is correct."

Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin at hearing a voice so close to him.

Spinning around, Naruto saw what he assumed was a yuki-onna. She looked pretty much human, being around twenty years old in appearance, with thigh-length powder blue hair, and striking violet eyes. She wore a pure white kimono that looked like it was snow made fabric.

"Erm… hi?" Naruto awkwardly greeted her.

"Greetings, human." The yuki-onna returned his greeting, bowing her head slightly.

"Um… you're not going to do that, are you? The kidnapping thing I mean." Naruto asked, gulping nervously.

The yuki-onna looked at the three youkai that hovered protectively around the boy. "Even if I were inclined to do so, you are too well protected for me to acquire on my own."

"So you're not going to kidnap me?" Naruto continued, wanting confirmation.

"If you were alone, I might have done so, but knowing you have powerful guardians, I will refrain from taking you. There are few enough of my kind without me needlessly risking myself against such powerful opponents." She eloquently informed him.

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, not noticing an impish grin appear on the yuki-onna's face.

"However, seduction is not something to be discarded out of hand." She added. "Where force does not work, perhaps subtlety and intelligence will suffice."

"Um… I don't mean to be rude, but I don't really see myself hanging around Iron Country long enough for that to really work, you know?" Naruto nervously shrugged.

"Yuki-onna are not limited to the north alone." She informed him. "However, the humans will notice the cold we bring with us should we travel south in force." Her eyes twinkled mischievously. "One or two may slip by unnoticed though."

"That sounds great..." Naruto said, before remembering something he'd read before. "Hey, you know how ninja have bloodlines? They're thought to be chakra mutations and stuff, but what if they came from youkai and human relativ… _relationships_. Do you know if that's true or not?"

"I imagine you're referring to what is known as the 'ice release' bloodline." The yuki-onna replied. "In truth, though you are far from the first to speculate bloodlines being born from non-human blood, those with such mutations did not spring from cross-species breeding. However, exactly what causes them, I could not say."

"Oh, okay then." Naruto said. "I just thought… never mind, I'm sorry if I offended you with what I said."

"There was no harm in your words, nor in your intentions." The yuki-onna smiled. "I am not offended by your implications either. In fact, if such unions did indeed produce such things, then it would suggest that my kind would be able to bear children far more easily than we truly can. Unfortunately, that is not the case."

"Uh… okay then." Naruto floundered for something to say, not helped at all when he heard Ran start to snicker behind his back.

"Now, a question of my own; where are you going and what is your reason for coming to Iron Country?" The yuki-onna asked.

"Oh!" A question he could answer. "Well, you see, I'm going to be a ninja, and to be one, I need to learn how to fight. We came here because this is apparently where most weapon tsukumogami are supposed to be, and we thought that one of them might be willing and able to teach me. Do you know where I could find someone appropriate?"

"I'm afraid that I do not." The yuki-onna shook her head. "Like most of my kin, I wander the open country, occasionally drifting close to a human settlement, and yuki-onna tend not to… 'mix' well with other youkai. Up here we are viewed as a threat, both the rich power and the environment serving to make us quite powerful."

Naruto sighed. "Damn, I was hoping you could point us in the right direction. The only lot of youkai we've come across so far are all dead, and I don't really want to walk into whoever killed them, or another group that might try and kill me either."

The yuki-onna observed Naruto, before deliberately turning her attention to Ran, Misuzu, and Madara. "I do not believe you have much to worry about in regards to your safety. While youkai exist that could roll over your guardians without trouble, they are few and far between."

"You managed to sneak up on me without any of us noticing you." Naruto pointed out. "Just because someone isn't super strong doesn't mean they're harmless."

"That is true." The yuki-onna said with a slowly growing smirk. "However, I am a _yuki-onna_ , I am almost literally a snowstorm, and to detect me at all is surprising. It would be different if I attempted to abduct you, because then they could not only try and track myself down, but they would be able to follow _you_ as well."

"Okay, that's pretty cool." Naruto admitted, thinking about how awesome stealth like that was. "Still, knowing my luck, I'll probably come across one of those super strong youkai just wandering around, and it's fifty-fifty on whether they'd want to fight or just sit down and talk."

The yuki-onna closed her eyes, and for a moment, the snow seemed to swirl much thicker than it did before. When he'd cleared his vision, Naruto saw that the snow woman had re-opened her eyes, and her hair had been caught in the wind, giving it a wilder, ruffled look.

"I can detect no others in my range, youkai or human, and the strongest of the strong tend to have defined territories that they more or less stick to. I can show you the places to avoid… if you so desire it?" She said.

"And what's it going to cost me?" Naruto asked warily.

"Nothing much." The yuki-onna said. "Just a kiss."

xxxxx

Ran watched the yuki-onna carefully. She may have done nothing so far to make her think she would attack Naruto or attempt to inconvenience him in any way, but neither did she have a reason to trust the youkai woman either. She would act if she had to, but for now she would let Naruto try and talk through things first.

She felt amusement bubble up inside herself as she listened to Naruto's awkward attempts at conversation, and idly wondered how differently things would have gone if Naruto were a few years older, under the influence of teenage hormones, and just becoming a man.

She imagined he would be less coherent than he was now.

The yuki-onna's form was what, if she was right, grown human males found attractive. She was human-shaped, with delicate features, a slender body, and those lumps that men were supposed to like, even if they were smaller than some she'd seen on other examples of female humans.

Her mannerisms were also 'enticing', if she understood them properly. Hiding her lower face behind a wide sleeve, her posture being firm but not domineering, and even her tone of voice was sweet and sensual. On top of that, her words gave the impression of one that was not unintelligent or ignorant.

Given her relatively young appearance, that of a woman only just matured, she could see how many regular humans may consider her to be 'perfect' and desirable. She was merely thankful that Naruto didn't seem drawn in by her, though if he one day actually _did_ become close to the ice and snow aligned youkai… well, that was his choice after all.

However, the 'price' the snow woman had asked in return for showing them which areas of the country were unsafe made her sharply focus on the blue-haired female. While not as lethal as sleeping with one, a mere kiss on the cheek from a yuki-onna could give a regular human frostbite, and while that could be treated relatively easily with Naruto's current first aid kit and potions, it would also tell the yuki-onna if he was at all resistant to her cold body.

xxxxx

"A… kiss?" Naruto asked. "Like, a kiss on the lips, or one on the cheek?"

"The cheek will suffice, young human." The yuki-onna then blushed and gave him a coy look. "Unless you wish to satisfy your beastly male urges with my tender body. I had thought you too young, but to think humans matured at such an early age." She gave a mock sigh of faintness.

"A k-kiss on the cheek is fine, I'm not going to do a-anything else!" Naruto waved his hands around and blushed bright red from embarrassment.

"Oh, how disappointing." The yuki-onna said. "We could have gone so much further than that."

"I'm six years old!" Naruto protested.

"True." The yuki-onna agreed. "I guess I can wait a few years, a decade is nothing after all, and I do believe you will enter your adult development before that. Now, how about that kiss?"

Wishing to avoid the talk about puberty as much as possible, Naruto eagerly agreed, and waited while the yuki-onna bent down to his level, before giving her a quick peck on the cheek. A moment later, she did the same to him, before she straightened up.

"Wow, you are pretty cold, aren't you?" Naruto commented, having felt the chill of her body on his lips and cheek, which he was currently rubbing at. "I suppose calling you a yuki-onna really is appropriate."

"Oh please, child, call me Tsurara." The yuki-onna, Tsurara told him.

Icicle? An appropriate name he supposed. Naruto then introduced himself.

"Ah, my name is Naruto Uzumaki. It's nice to meet you." He said.

"Oh believe me." Tsurara said, an odd glint in her eyes. "The pleasure is all mine."


	11. Strange Weapons

AN: And here is the conclusion of the 'Iron Country' arc. It didn't go quite how I planned it to, and I did edit out a bit with Mifune which just didn't seem to fit in right, but hey, all's right in the end, no? Next chapter will be a bit filler-ish, and after that I should get started on the next mini-arc before the academy, with Naruto at age seven. Oh! One more thing, I intend for this story to be in three parts! Before the time-skip (standard Naruto stuff), the time-skip itself (Set on another continent of the world, though I'm not sure what to cross-over with this story there), and after the time-skip. Just thought you might want to know!

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 11 – Strange Weapons

True to her words, Tsurara showed them around Iron Country. Well, she at least showed them the borders of territory belonging to youkai that had a good chance of being able to overpower the combined might of Ran, Misuzu, and Madara. None of them wanted to tangle with anything that strong, especially if it was violent and bloodthirsty.

Having flown all around the country, it was once again getting late. Like the previous evening, Naruto found somewhere to set up his tent and cooking equipment to make himself some food to eat. While he did that, Tsurara lay spread-eagled on the snowy ground, seemingly content just to lay there.

As he was cooking his meal, Naruto looked at the yuki-onna.

"Hey, Tsurara, you said that you're not very welcome around other youkai, right? Does that mean you at least know where the groups of them are?" He asked.

"I do." She answered him. "I know nothing about the groups other than 'they're there', so I can't say which group might have a youkai with the temperament and skills you are looking for though. I could not even tell you if they are violent or peaceful either."

"Well it's more than I had to go on before, I was just wandering around randomly when you came across us today." Naruto shrugged.

"Hmm, well if that's all you need, I _can_ direct you to one of the smaller groups I suppose." Tsurara mused.

"And what would it cost him _this_ time?" Ran asked her.

"Maybe just another kiss perhaps, or is there a chance of a little cuddle?" Tsurara's eyes glittered with amusement.

"Don't push your luck, ice cube." Ran growled at her. "I know what you're up to."

"Oh, what am I up to then?" Tsurara asked. "Can I not simply be a friendly person?"

"The question is just _how_ 'friendly' do you intend to be?" Ran snorted.

"Is there something wrong with being friendly?" Tsurara kept smiling at Ran.

xxxxx

Having backed away from the two bickering females, Naruto looked to Madara.

"What are they arguing about?" He asked the inugami.

"Don't ask me, kid, I don't understand how women work, either human _or_ youkai." He shrugged. "Just leave them to it, they'll burn themselves out sooner or later, and then we can get on with what we're doing here."

"Have you any ideas, Misuzu?" Naruto looked up at the horse youkai.

"Only that they are fighting over you for some reason." He replied. "So you are probably the best one to defuse this situation."

"I suppose." Naruto reluctantly said, not really all that keen to get in the middle of an argument between two powerful youkai. "Well, he who dares, wins, I guess, and all of that sort of thing."

Taking a breath, Naruto hurried forwards and got between Ran and Tsurara. Putting an arm around both of them, or at least as much of Ran as he could considering that her eyes alone were more then six times as big as he was himself, he gave both of them a hug, abruptly bringing their argument to a halt.

"Can you two _please_ get along with each other?" Naruto pleaded. "Ran, you're a special friend of mine, and I love trading stories with you. I don't like seeing you angry like this, so please can you calm down? For me?" He looked towards the yuki-onna. "Tsurara, you're a new friend, and I'd be happy to get to know you, but can you be less… hostile towards Ran, please? I'm giving you a hug right now, is that okay for your price?"

Indeed, Tsurara noticed, Naruto really was hugging her, and while he was rapidly becoming rather cold, his arm had yet to be permanently damaged, or even fall off, despite it being kept there for several seconds, which stretched further as she registered this fact.

She smiled at him. "Oh, if it's for you, I _suppose_ I can tolerate this wet worm."

Ran huffed. "I'm only looking out for you, Naruto, so as long as she doesn't do you any harm, I guess I can endure the presence of this frosty hag for now."

The two youkai glared at each other for the insults, but neither of them instigated another round of pointless arguments, leaving Naruto to sigh in relief.

"That's great." He said. "Now, shall we go and see one of those groups that Tsurara knows about?"

"There's one relatively near here." Tsurara told him. "We can go there as soon as you want to."

"Well, right now works for me, finding a teacher _is_ the reason I came to this country after all." Naruto reasoned.

"Come on then, follow me!" Tsurara said, turning away and leading them off to the west.

xxxxx

Back in Konoha, Akiko couldn't help but nervously tap her fingertips on the cover of the book she was reading. Not that she was really paying much attention to the words on the page, her eyes refused to focus on them. Instead, she kept checking both the calendar and the clock, wondering if it was too soon to go back to Naruto's camp in the forest.

When Naruto had first left for Iron Country, she had comforted herself with the fact that he had taken three rather powerful youkai with him to protect and guard him. However, the very next day, she had gone straight to the clearing to see if they had returned, only to be told they hadn't by one of the youkai capable of taking a form visible to humans.

She'd gone back the day after as well, that very morning in fact, and been told the same thing. Not being able to think about her favourite pupil possibly being in danger, she'd asked what Iron Country was really like from a youkai's perspective, and the answers she'd been given had done nothing to quell her unease, quite the contrary actually.

It kind of depressed her as well, that she was the _only_ person in the village to even notice that the boy wasn't around, and that was only because she had found out about the youkai he surrounded himself with. If she hadn't seen that webbed hand print on his homework, would she know him as well as she does now, would she still worry for him?

Oh, she was under no illusions about how she currently felt about Naruto. He was like a nephew to her – not a son, Hinoe seemed to be his mother figure – and she had thought about introducing the child to her sister's children. They might be a few years older than the blonde, and neither of them had any intentions of becoming involved with a ninja lifestyle, but Naruto was more mature than his age would suggest, most probably because of how self-sufficient he was.

The only problem she foresaw there was that she didn't know how much her niece and nephew might… dislike Naruto. She knew for a fact her sister didn't care either way, to her it was all 'ninja stuff' and none of her business. The kids, on the other hand, might have picked up on how a lot of people were either afraid of or disgusted by Naruto.

Then again, Naruto wasn't exactly a common sight around the village any longer. Give it a few more years and people might start forgetting who Naruto was or what he contained. Well, they'd forget it until it was brought to their attention, so unless someone _really_ got onto a fox-hating kick, Naruto had a chance at being just another kid.

Or perhaps she was just being overly optimistic.

Realising that she hadn't read a word of her book for at least half an hour, Akiko tried to refocus on it once more, despite knowing that it was futile. The book she was reading was about myths and legends of the Elemental Nations, and she was currently reading about the Sage of Six Paths, a legendary figure who was apparently the 'father' of ninjutsu, or something like that.

It _was_ a book of stories that were treated as fiction. As far as she knew, there may have never been such a person as this 'sage of six paths'. On the other hand, youkai were thought to be fiction as well, and now she knew for a fact that they were real. Maybe some of them could tell her about the 'sage', and whether or not he existed.

She'd visit tomorrow though. She'd already visited today, and she didn't want to annoy any of the youkai by bugging them constantly. Tomorrow she would go, and maybe see Naruto returned in one piece, and if not then she would try again on the day after, and the day after that too, and keep going until she could see Naruto herself, and whether or not he was okay.

xxxxx

Up in Iron Country, Tsurara had led Naruto and his group to a thicket of trees.

"In there is a small group of youkai that I know about, and as far as I know none of them are particularly strong." She said. "It's possible that one of them might be able to direct you to a potential teacher, if there isn't one amongst the group. I can't go any further than this though, you've already heard about how yuki-onna are thought of in these parts."

Madara glared at the trees. "They grow too close together, none of us will be able to accompany Naruto when he goes to face those in there."

"It's one of the ways that group have kept themselves safe up here." Tsurara admitted. "While there are strong youkai that are human sized, most with power tend to have a larger, more intimidating form, such as yourselves."

"Relax, Madara." Misuzu told the inugami. "We let Naruto enter the caves before by himself, this is little different. In fact, this is better for him, because if we hear him call for help, we can smash our way through the trees if absolutely necessary, unlike with the solid rock of the cliff faces."

"I'll be fine." Naruto affirmed. "If I _do_ end up in trouble, I'll scream for help and leg it."

"Just be careful in there." Madara warned him. "Hinoe would skin me alive and make a rug of my fur if anything happened to you, and while my fur is the best, I much prefer wearing it myself."

"I'll be fine." Naruto repeated himself. "Now, you guys just wait here, I won't be long."

With that, the blonde turned and began heading into the cluster of trees.

Ran gave Tsurara a look. "If something does happen to Naruto in there, be assured that you will not survive my displeasure." She warned her.

Tsurara rolled her eyes. "I already said I don't know what they're like, just that there's not many of them and that they're relatively weak. I too have confidence that Naruto will get what he desires, so just sit tight and wait for him to come back to us."

Ran huffed, but offered no other response as she did just that.

xxxxx

Making his way slowly between the trees, Naruto attempted to stretch out his 'awareness', as Hinoe called it. A thin filmy layer of reiryoku spread over an area that would act like a radar, similar to how a thrown pebble will break the surface of a pond and cause ripples to spread outwards.

The only problem was that Naruto completely _sucked_ at doing this. Hinoe had only started teaching this particular technique to him two days before his departure, and he had yet to make a stable field of reiryoku stretching out three inches from his body.

Without that, he had to rely on his more mundane senses. Sight was pretty useless here though, as the trees were so close together that very little light was shining down around him. Smell was not much better either, as everything smelled the same right then. Taste wasn't going to help him, and touch had a really short range.

That left Naruto to navigate by sound more than anything, and it wasn't easy. He kept himself calm and aware as felt his way through the trees, hoping to catch a sound that would tell him where the youkai were in this thicket. A footstep, a snatch of conversation, or even rustling undergrowth would be helpful.

Cursing under his breath as he banged his shin on a fallen log, Naruto told himself that when he got back to Konoha, he was _really_ going to look up everything he could on tracking, hunting, and anything else that might help him improve his skills for tasks like this.

Maybe he could even find something that'd help him with stealth?

"Did you hear that?" A voice! Naruto heard a voice!

"It was probably nothing, there are these things known as 'wild animals' after all, even in this damnable country." Another voice grunted.

"But… I suppose you're right." The first voice sighed. "Still, I could swear that there was something off about that noise, it seemed too heavy to be any of the usual critters we find hereabouts."

"Hey!" Naruto called. "Um… I can hear you guys, and I kind of have a few questions, if you don't mind."

Well, he _was_ looking for answers, and he couldn't exactly just sneak about and get them. After all, what were the chances that the very topic he wanted to know about would just _happen_ to be discussed in a convenient location for him to overhear it, and just when he needed to know about it? That stuff, 'artistic license', was for fiction, not real life.

"You heard that, right?" The first voice once more spoke.

"Yeah, yeah, I heard it." The second grumbled. "No need to rub it in that you were right, there's something there."

"What if it's a powerful youkai come to eat us!?" The first voice exclaimed. "I heard a rumour that some new ones turned up a few days ago!"

"Those rumours also said that the three youkai were massive, dumbass!" The second voice snorted.

"Maybe it's a yuki-onna, come to rape us to death and defile our corpses!" The first voice continued, as if the second hadn't said anything.

"The voice was male, idiot!" The second commented, exasperation clear in its tone.

"You could just ask, you know." Naruto groused. "I'm a human who's looking for a teacher. Do you guys know any youkai that can fight like a human does, maybe a weapon tsukumogami or something?"

"It says it's a human, that can't be right!" The first voice told its companion.

"Probably not. I mean, how long has it been since we heard of a human with the sight?" The second voice agreed.

"Well, there are those rumours from Demon Country-" The first voice responded.

"With what proof?" The second voice interrupted. "There's _always_ rumours coming from 'Demon' country." The sneer could be clearly heard in its voice.

"You could just come and see me." Naruto said. "Even then, what's the harm in telling me where I might find a teacher? You don't _have_ to reveal yourselves to me if you don't want to, but I'd appreciate the help."

"Do you think it's telling the truth?" The first voice asked.

"Maybe." The second answered. "It does bring up some valid points regardless."

"Should we tell it about that samurai clan that got wiped out?" The first voice wondered. "I heard that there's a weapon spirit there that still watches over the ruins that are left. Maybe it's one of the friendly, honourable ones?"

"You and your stupid rumours again." The second voice growled. "Where did you hear _this_ one?"

"Well, a tengu came by here a few decades ago, and he told me about some of the things he'd seen as he flew overhead. Apparently it's the clan home of the Seiwa Genji clan, and it was one of the last ones to fall in the warring clans era of the humans." The first voice excitedly told the second.

"Enough!" The second voice shouted at the first. "I was asking a rhetorical question, nitwit!"

"Then why ask a question at all?" The first voice asked in confusion.

"I- Ah, I give up!" The second voice sighed. "Now, forget all that crap! If this really is a human, and it _can_ hear us, then it must be a pretty powerful human, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then think about how much stronger we could get if we ate it!" The second voice suggested. "Humans are stupid and don't know how to properly use their power, so let's eat this one and take that power for ourselves!"

"Wow, that's so smart of you!" The first voice praised the second.

With the first voice having accidentally divulged the information Naruto had asked for, the blonde decided to get out of there as fast as he could. The second one suggesting they eat him only made him move quicker. Having already turned and started making his way out, Naruto's heart leapt into his throat when he heard footsteps behind him.

Throwing all caution and quietness to the wind, he picked up the pace and yelled for his friends to help him.

Those footsteps were catching up to him rather quickly after all.

xxxxx

"Guys, help!"

Ran, Madara, Misuzu, and Tsurara are jerked up at hearing Naruto's voice yell out to them.

Without waiting for anything else, Ran took to the air and began looking for Naruto from above. Madara took a more direct route, heading straight towards where he heard the boy's voice coming from and tearing apart any tree foolish enough to get in his way!

Misuzu, being larger than Madara, and with greater reach, pulled up trees further ahead of the inugami. Calling out to Naruto to head towards the clearing he was making by tearing the trees from the earth, he sharpened his own hearing in an attempt to locate the boy beneath all of those branches.

Ran twisted in the air, being the first one to pinpoint where Naruto was. Grasping trees in her mouth, she tore them from the ground in front of where she'd heard him, making a small clearing. A flash of blonde hair appeared a few moments later, and Naruto ran up her lowered head and onto her back.

Just behind Naruto, two human-sized youkai burst from the trees, one yellow and the other green. Neither of them looked particularly human, with one being short, squat, and with a mouth full of literal tusks, while the other was stick thin and had three arms.

They froze upon seeing Ran, who roared at them, causing them to turn around and flee right back into the trees.

Bringing Naruto back to the others, She called out to them to let them know Naruto was okay. However, when she let the boy off her back, she saw he was rubbing at his right shoulder with his left hand. When asked what was wrong, Naruto removed his cloak and shirt to reveal a purple mark where he had been rubbing.

"A curse." Madara recognised it for what it was. "A parasitic, debilitating one. It's weak, but if it's not treated you'll be in trouble after a while."

"You know about curses?" Naruto asked in surprise. "I thought that was Hinoe's thing."

"It is." Madara told him. "I can't cast them myself, nor can I break them down or analyse them. However, having spent as much time in the same area as Hinoe, I've learned how to recognise some aspects of curses. This one, like I said, is weak, and shouldn't give you too much of a problem as long as we can get you back home within the next few days."

"That's good to know. I felt this curse hit me while I was running away, I thought it was a stone or something at first. It made my arm feel numb and a little weak, so I thought I might've been bruised or something." Naruto told them. "At least I know where to look now though!"

"You do?" Ran asked.

"Yeah, one of those two youkai was an idiot, and he said something about the Seiwa Genji clan being wiped out some time ago. Apparently, a spirit of some sort watches over the ruins. I'm hoping that spirit is willing to help me. Can we try and ask them to help before we go back to Konoha?" Naruto pleaded.

"You're injured, Naruto, and you need to get that curse dispelled." Ran told him, before sighing. "However, as long as it's in the open, I don't see why we can't check out one ruin." She then turned stern. " _However_ , regardless of what happens, we'll be going straight to Konoha afterwards! Agreed?"

"Yes, I agree." Naruto complied.

"There's just one problem with that." Madara said, getting the others to look at him.

"Just where _is_ the Seiwa Genji compound?"

xxxxx

The inhabitants of the largest settlement in Iron Country looked on in curiosity as a child – obviously a foreigner – meandered down the streets, seemingly looking for something. It became apparent what the blonde boy was looking for when he spotted the library and headed straight in.

Now, the Land of Iron was a lot harsher in climate than places such as the Land of Fire, and as such a lot more resources were dedicated to ensuring they had stockpiles of food and fuel. That didn't mean they didn't have places of entertainment, or other public services, because they did, there was just less of a focus on it than somewhere that wasn't so hard to live in.

Consequently, the library was a lot smaller than Konoha's, but that also meant there was less information to look through than there otherwise might have been. When he entered, Naruto made a bee-line towards the history section, and then narrowed his search down further by eliminating both ancient history – which was treated as myths and fiction – and the general history of the Elemental Nations.

That left him with more local history, and he quickly discarded several books on topics such as the founding of the villages and towns in Iron Country, as well as books on the history of engineering and technology. Going right past thick books with titles such as 'The Development of Agriculture in the North', the blonde eventual found a book regarding the clans of Iron Country.

Unfortunately, while the book _did_ have a contents page, it did not have an index. That left Naruto the slower method of searching it by checking through the chapters themselves. Given that the clan he was looking for had fallen during the Warring Clans Era, if he remembered right, he decided to start with the section devoted to that slice of history.

He read through the chapter as fast as he could, his eyes glancing through the difficulties faced by various groups of samurai that had specialised in different skill areas. He read about those who had favoured horses and how they fell due to their mounts being rather useless in the cold climate, and difficult to keep. He read about those that chose the bow and arrow, and how they had lasted longer than the horses, but had failed against the other samurai factions.

He eventually found the Seiwa Genji clan, which was one of the last remaining clans to favour the yari spear. They were apparently wiped out, or at least the book told him so, by an assault from a rival clan, and though outnumbered more than four to one, still managed to take down over half of those who attacked them.

Naruto's eyes lit up as he came across a passage that said _'and even now, the ruins of this once great clan can be seen barely a day's journey south of the Three Wolves most western tip. Legends abound of spirits that guard this place still, an_ _d it is said_ _that the ancestors who once lived there now guard against looters and thieves._ '

That told him where it was at least, and those 'legends' were good for him, as it meant the likelihood of there being youkai there was pretty high. With this, he could potentially be back in Konoha by tomorrow morning, if all went well at least, and he'd be quite happy if that was the case. It was nice to be somewhere so different to Konoha, but the open expanses unnerved him a bit, and he found himself craving the great forests he knew better.

Putting the book back where he'd gotten it, Naruto dashed out of the library, only just missing an older man with grey hair, and what appeared to be bandages wrapped around his head, who was just coming in, having heard about a strange foreigner child.

The man, Mifune, just hoped it wasn't a ninja, they tended to be rather troublesome after all.

xxxxx

Of course, when the book said it was a day's journey, they hadn't intended that to mean the same as a day's journey riding on the back of a youkai. It was much more likely that they had meant a day's journey travelling at a more civilian pace, and as such, it didn't take half as long for Naruto to get there.

Dismounting from Ran's back, Naruto looked at the remains of what had once been the clan compound of one of the most notable samurai families in Iron Country. The snow hadn't covered everything, and some parts of it were clearly visible, like an almost intact outbuilding.

Taking a few tentative steps forward, Naruto looked around for any youkai that might be in the area. He didn't catch sight of anything immediately, yet all four of his current companions assured him that they could sense _someone_ in the area, even if they weren't entirely sure where exactly they were.

"Hello!" Naruto called out. "Is anyone here?"

There was no immediate response, unnerving Naruto a little. He'd had a few nasty surprises in Iron Country, and he didn't want this to be another one of them. Therefore, instead of separating from his friends, he chose to wander where it was more open, and where they could be right with him, instead of looking through doorways and windows.

The sound of shifting snow made Naruto sharply twist his neck to see what had caused it.

There, on one of the half-collapsed roofs, stood what appeared to be a samurai in full armour. In his hands he held a traditional yari spear that was pointed towards Naruto. Ran, Madara, and Misuzu weren't pleased with this, and growled at the youkai, at least until Naruto calmed them down. Tsurara simply watched in silence.

"Halt." The samurai-esque youkai called out. "State your purpose here."

"Um, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, and… I'm kind of looking for a teacher." He responded.

"A teacher? For what purpose?" He asked.

A quiet noise from the side made Naruto look, only to see another youkai, this one female and wearing lighter armour. On her hands there appeared to be metal claws of some sort, tekko-kagi, which really weren't weapons traditionally used by samurai, at least as far as Naruto knew.

"I want to learn how to fight." The blonde said.

"Why do you want to fight?" The spear guy questioned him.

"There's a couple of reasons really..." Naruto replied. "I've been told that I have pretty much no choice but to become a ninja. However, if I really had to fight… I'd want it to be because I was protecting my home or those I care about. The only other ones I'd want to fight are those who are going around and doing bad things to others."

"A simple answer, but how honest is it truly?" The spear youkai mused aloud, before raising his voice. "You are from the south, yes? You are no samurai, so why should we follow you and not kill you where you stand?"

Once more, Naruto had to calm his youkai companions before he replied to the youkai. "I may intend to become a ninja, and I might also not quite follow the samurai ideals, but I don't have any intention of becoming an unrepentant murderer. Ninjas might be thought of as heartless killers, but assassinations and sabotage are actually pretty rare, especially outside of war time. I… I don't really know what else you want me to say."

"You do not deny that ninja sometimes commit dishonourable acts?" The spear youkai questioned him, his tone blank and flat.

"I'd be lying if I said that wasn't true." Naruto shook his head. "I'd also say that, as long as it does not cause unnecessary suffering, I'd call it a valid tactic. Paralytic poisons and those that cause sleep, traps and ambushes… all of them and more are part of fighting, and ignoring them is likely to get me killed."

The female with the metal claws on her hands laughed softly. "He speaks the truth, Tetsuyama."

"You would agree, wouldn't you, Takame?" The spear guy, apparently named Tetsuyama, responded.

"I _am_ somewhat separated from the 'traditional' samurai way." She shrugged, raising her hands and gesturing with her claws.

"And what is your opinion, Masami?" Tetsuyama asked.

Stepping out from behind another part of the ruined compound, what appeared to be a geisha girl holding a weighted chain, a kusari-fundo, glanced at the spear youkai. "You _know_ that I am not a traditional weapon either. I honestly don't know _why_ we stay here myself, this clan left me to gather dust once I was made! The only time I was actually used was by a courtesan!

"This clan forged our bodies, we owe them our very existence." Tetsuyama told her.

"And how long must we spend 'protecting' their legacy?" Masami shot back. "No one comes here, no one living at least. This is the first human I have seen in the last five years! On top of that, he can see us. How often are we going to have an opportunity such as this?"

Tetsuyama looked at Naruto. "Boy, tell me, if we were to agree to come with you and teach you what we can, what would you do with our lessons? What are your intentions? What do you wish to do with your life?"

"In two years time, I'm going to enrol in the Ninja Academy." Naruto said. "Once I graduate from there, I'll be a genin. As a genin, I'll have access to resources I don't currently have, which I want to learn from. As a chunin, I'll be able to apply to join one of the divisions I like.

"I intend to join the hunter ninjas. They hunt down rogue shinobi and kunoichi outside of the village, but more than that… they have quite a bit of freedom to move around. If I wasn't a ninja, I think I'd like to be an explorer, someone who can wander the world and see ruins, remnants of history, and everything there is in the world."

"A beautiful dream." Masami said. "Not a violent one at all."

"He _did_ say he wants to join the hunters." Takame pointed out.

"As a means to an end, yes." Masami agreed.

Tetsuyama silently observed Naruto for a few moments before speaking. "The way of the warrior, Bushido, has eight virtues. They are righteousness, courage, benevolence, respect, sincerity, honour, loyalty, and self-control. Do these apply to you?"

"I don't know how I could prove it to you, but I would say yes." Naruto replied. "If I saw someone in need, I would help them. If I had a difficult task to do, I would do my best. If someone needs my help, I will give it. If someone has proven themselves, I will respect them. I act true to my beliefs, and while I might omit things, I will not outright lie. If I have a responsibility, I will not shirk from it. My loyalty is to my friends and those I care for. I can hold back my instinctive reactions to things if necessary."

"You have answered my questions, and I sense no deceit in you." Tetsuyama stated. "However, that is not proof enough."

"It is for me." Masami said. "And I do not wish to stay amongst these ruins any longer."

"I must admit that I too have grown tired of this place." Takame added.

Tetsuyama silently regarded the two of them for a full minute before speaking again.

"I find that I cannot abandon this place." Tetsuyama shook his head. "However, if you return here in the future, and if both Takame and Masami are willing to endorse you, then I will teach you how to wield a spear, as well as how a true samurai fights. Impress me enough… and I may even give you my name."

Naruto was confused at that point, wasn't the youkai's name Tetsuyama? Given the way everyone reacted to that statement though, perhaps there was more to this 'name' thing than Naruto knew. Maybe it was a youkai thing? He'd ask Hinoe about the significance of Tetsuyama's words when he got back home. For now though, he had two youkai willing to come with him back to Konoha.

"Okay then." Naruto respectfully gave Tetsuyama his farewell. "Goodbye for now. I'll be sure to return sometime and visit you here."

"Take good care of those two." The spear youkai said to him.

"Goodbye, old geezer." Masami said her farewell too, followed by Takame.

After that, they left him there to watch over the ruins of the old clan compound.

xxxxx

When Naruto returned to Konoha, he was greeted by Akiko, who had apparently just visited his camp when he touched down. She babbled on and on, asking question after question to make sure he was okay. Patting him down and checking for injuries, she pretty much forced the blonde to tell her _every_ last injury he'd received, how he'd gotten it, and how serious it was.

Having her worry for him was… nice. It made him feel really wanted, like he was someone important, and he spent the rest of the day feeling on top of the world. Of course, he had to introduce the three youkai who had returned with him, namely one yuki-onna and two tsukumogami.

Akiko gave him a strange look when she heard that all three of them were female, though Naruto didn't have a clue as to why that was. She was mumbling something under her breath, but Naruto's ears weren't sharp enough to catch whatever it was that she said.

Meeting Hinoe afterwards was a bit strange though. The first thing she did, after scolding him for getting injured and removing the curse cast on him, was dump a small pile of scrolls in his arms. At his bewildered and confused look, she only gave him one response.

"Blame the kappa."


	12. Reports and Letters

AN: Here's a bit of 'filler' between the first mini-arc and the second, which I still haven't decided upon. I have a few little ideas about how things are going to go, and already Naruto's fighting style is beginning to develop here. It's raw and untrained, but it's there. He might not have the raw strength to match anyone who's even at genin level, but he's a sneaky little kid, so he's probably going to trip one or two people up along the way. Oh, by the way, roughstar333 has collected together all of the omakes so far (only 3) in a 'story' called Spirit's Balance: Omake Edition for anyone who is interested.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 12 – Reports and Letters

"Wha-?" Naruto asked in confusion. "Blame the kapp- what is all this?"

Opening one of the scrolls at random, Naruto began to read through it, but what he read just served to confuse him further. What was all this about pirate attacks, bandit raids, and hot weather affecting the rice plantations? It seemed to be a collection of little facts and rumours from the border of Rice Country to him.

Opening another scroll, he found something similar, just for a different part of the world, and the same for every other scroll he opened. Laying them on the floor, he put them down in a rough approximation of where in the Elemental Nations each 'report' had come from, and to his surprise, he found that they covered a good chunk of the continent.

"What is all of this?" He repeated himself.

Hinoe rolled her eyes. "You remember the time you asked the kappa about what was going on in Water Country? It was after Ran told you why she left and decided to move to the Valley of the End." When Naruto replied in the affirmative, she continued. "Well as it so happens, the kappa went at it with their usual enthusiasm, and now most of the kappa colonies around the continent have decided to send you their 'reports'."

"I guess that explains it." Naruto murmured. The reports were, even to Naruto's young eyes, rather amateurish. Facts and rumours were mixed up together with no sign of any organisation, and a lot of the information written on the scrolls seemed really irrelevant. "But the hand-writing on this one isn't like a kappa's." He pointed out, picking up one particular scroll, this one talking about Jiraiya of the Sannin, some rumours about a 'new' ninja village that was recruiting, and a few other titbits.

"I know." Hinoe replied, slightly amused. Trust Naruto to recognise the differences in handwriting when a regular human wouldn't even be able to read what a youkai wrote, it appearing to be nothing more than a scribble to them. "That report is from a hone-onna that works in a brothel."

"A bone woman?" Naruto asked, wanting clarification.

"Yeah, they drain the energy of men to sustain themselves." Hinoe explained. "A number of them have learned how to not completely drain someone and now live enjoyable lives of their own as dancers, bartenders, and prostitutes. I don't know how the kappa got them to send reports as well, but they did."

"What use is all of this to me? I mean, what can I do with it all?" Naruto asked.

"The question is 'what _will_ you do with it?'" Hinoe retorted. "What you have there is the beginnings of a spy network, one that has the potential to be better than any other in the world. After all, who can hide something from someone they can't even see?"

"But still, there's nothing I can do with it." Naruto shrugged. "If I was a village leader or something, _then_ I might have some use for it, but I'm not, and I don't really care to become Hokage, or any sort of kage at all for that matter."

"Don't be so quick to dismiss it." Hinoe cautioned him. "Information is power, and believe it or not, having something like that might make all of the difference sometime down the line. Just try reading them, maybe something will jump out at you that could be useful, or even something interesting."

Naruto sighed, but complied with her anyway. He reached out and grabbed one scroll at random, one of those from Lightning Country. Opening it, he found out it was about Kumo specifically, one of the five main hidden villages. The scroll was also a fair bit more organised than some of the others he'd looked through, maybe Kumo's more disciplined hierarchical nature had influenced some of the youkai who live in the area?

Anyway, the first part of the 'report' was more like a list than anything else. It was made up of a number of names, their position in the village, and any little facts that the kappa were aware of. For example, they'd noted down the Raikage, A, was a prideful man, and that there was little he would not do to ensure his own village's safety and superiority. They even made a special note of something referred to as the 'Hyuuga Affair' as well.

As well as that, the report went on to talk about the two Jinchuuriki of Kumo, Killer B and Yugito Nii as well. There were actual observations about the two of them in the report. One kappa had apparently spent several days following B around, and another had done the same with Yugito.

Naruto read through those two parts twice over, paying more attention to them than he did to pretty much everything else that the kappa had put in there. He worried at his lip as an idea started to wiggle itself into his head, an idea that would either prove to be incredibly brilliant, or incredibly stupid.

"Hinoe." Naruto hesitantly started. "How long would it take to learn how to make a bird shikigami?"

Raising an eyebrow in curiosity, she asked him to show her how far along he was with it so far.

Pulling out a scrap of paper and a pencil, Naruto quickly sketched out the required symbols before channelling his reiryoku into it. Tossing the paper as soon as it began to turn black, he took a step back to take a good look at what his most recent attempt turned out like.

Hinoe stepped forwards and looked at the black… 'creature' that took form from Naruto's attempt at making a shiki. It was roughly half the size of a grown man, and possessed some obviously avian features, yet it still wasn't anything like a true bird.

The arms looked about right. The individual digits had become narrow and long, with stretched black 'skin' covering the gaps between them like a bat's wings, but there were no feathers covering them at all. The different parts of the legs weren't the right proportions for a human, the lower leg being much longer than the thigh, while the foot and toes looked… well, nauseating was perhaps the politest way of putting that mess.

The body was angled horizontally, like a birds, rather than vertically, and the general shape was almost right. The neck and head needed work though, as even though the nose and mouth had fused into a strange beak made of flesh and bone, the eyes were still human, and the bone structure was all wrong as well.

"If we focus on getting it right and dedicate all of our lesson time to it, probably a few days, maybe a week." Hinoe told him. He had some of the general things about the form right, going over the anatomy of one and how it differed from a human would probably clear up the rest of the issues.

"Can we?" He asked.

Hinoe snorted. "Sure, there's nothing else we need to _really_ focus on right now after all."

xxxxx

Yugito Nii, Jinchuuriki of the Nibi, the two-tailed cat, laid on her bed and cried. She may be twenty years old, but it didn't matter how old someone was, sometimes you just needed to curl up and ignore the world for a day. Right now, her life felt really unfair, and so she was blocking out as much of it as she could.

It was said in the Elemental Nations that Kumo was the only village to honour their Jinchuuriki, that they were seen as heroes. That, while not being an outright lie, was not quite the truth either. Kumo was a much more military-focused village than the others, like Konoha was an economically-focused one.

This meant that power equalled prestige, at least to a certain degree. The power a jinchuuriki could bring to bear with their tailed beast lead them to be viewed with a certain amount of respect and awe, but as with all things, humans hated and feared what they did not understand, and what they did not like.

Many of the ninja, and most of the civilians, kept a 'respectful' distance from her. It didn't help that she was far more serious in demeanour than Killer B, the other jinchuuriki in Kumo, who acted like a complete fool. That such an 'act' was actually his true personality aside, it endeared him to people more than her own attitude did.

At twenty years old, Yugito had never had a boyfriend, and neither did she have very many people she could call friends. She wasn't alone by any means, truly she wasn't, but she was socially awkward, and much more comfortable during a mission than drinking with others in a bar.

She did make attempts at going out and socialising. In fact, she had made just such an attempt just a few days ago, where she had gone out and tried to talk with the other jounin ninja in the village. There were bars where such people frequented, and she knew them, so it was no surprise when she went to one and found a number of said ninja already a few saucers of sake into drinking the night away.

The problem was that some of them, perhaps a little more drunk than they really should have been, made a few choice comments that really upset her. It seemed that having a cat biju sealed inside of her made her the butt of all jokes involving cats and 'pussies'.

Their words hadn't been intended to be hurtful, but they were said so casually that it really struck her deep, especially when some of the drunker patrons of the bar had added in some… rather crude jokes as well, those had been really uncalled for, and the socially awkward girl had left in embarrassment and slight anger, her head hung low.

A tapping at her window made Yugito groan, but if it was a message hawk, she knew she couldn't ignore it. Maybe it was a new mission for her, something she could focus on and forget all about her problems for at least a short while. When she looked though, she was surprised to see that it wasn't a message hawk tapping on the window.

Instead, it was a different bird, slightly smaller and more stream-lined than the usual messenger birds. Well, that was if it was a bird at all, because it didn't quite look like one. Oh, it had the _shape_ of a bird, but… it kind of looked like oil made solid, as it was completely black and smooth-looking.

It did have a letter though, and she could see her own name written neatly on the envelope. Still, she was suspicious of it, and so she created a fire clone that took the letter in her place and opened it. When it didn't immediately explode or do anything else, the clone handed the letter over to her before dispelling itself. Yugito proceeded to read the letter.

 _Dear Yugito Nii,_

 _I know this letter is probably going to be a little weird, especially coming from someone you may not have even heard of before, so I apologise if this comes across as being a bit creepy. Anyway, I have some friends who send me letters, and one of them mentioned you, saying you looked really sad about something, and that you could use a friend._

 _Ah, I should also say that, while I'm not from Kumo myself, I do know that you're a jinchuuriki. I don't really know what that means in Kumo, but in case people don't like it there, let me just say that I don't particularly care either way, so… um, I'm rambling here. Anyway, yeah, you are you and that's that, right?_

 _I don't know how a random letter can help you cheer up, but if you feel better, that's great! Oh! Also, if you want to send a letter back, the shiki I sent will wait around for a reply. You don't have to send a letter if you don't want to, but you can if you want. Hinoe is always telling me I need to meet more people, maybe you can be one of them._

 _So, if you want to talk about things… I guess I should probably start this off and introduce myself. My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I live in Fire Country. I'm an orphan, so I don't have parents, but I do have people who care about me. I really like Hinoe and Akiko-sensei, Benio, Ran, and loads of other people! I enjoy camping, and I learned how to make traps and stuff from books, so I can catch squirrels and rabbits to cook over a fire. I really like roasted squirrel by the way, it's my favourite thing to eat. I like learning about new things and meeting new people. I don't really like judgemental people and I'm not massively fond of chicken either. If I could chose my own future, I would like to be an explorer and see the world, and I'd love to investigate ruins too._

 _That's pretty much all I can think of right now. If you want to ask me something, I'll tell you what I can, okay?_

 _Yours sincerely, Naruto Uzumaki_

That was… odd. Yugito didn't think she'd ever received a letter like that before. In fact, the only letters she'd ever received had been summons to the Raikage's office regarding missions or something, so this was completely new. The fact that this apparently came from Fire Country as well meant the letter had been sent quite some distance too.

She tried to think if anything like this was in the Shinobi rules of Kumo, but she kept drawing a blank. The letter was from Fire Country, and that meant it might be from Konoha, so should she report it as someone nosing around for information about her village?

Well, it wasn't like the letter was asking anything about the ninja of the village or anything. Heck, it wasn't even asking _her_ about her own ninja life, it was just… a friendly introduction really, with an offer of becoming letter friends, or something like that, and there wasn't any harm in that now, was there?

Without her paying much attention, her hand was already wandering over to her bedside table to grab a fresh piece of paper and a pen. Hesitantly, she began to write out a reply to this 'Naruto' person. She recognised the surname, Uzumaki, and in her letter she asked whether he was a ninja or not, and if he had any connection to the Uzumaki clan.

Once she'd finished her letter, she folded it up, sealed it, and handed it back to the… 'shiki' bird thing that had brought it. It grabbed hold of the letter and proceeded to fly away out of her window, and it was like that she stayed for a while, watching the strange thing leave.

A knock on her door made her jump slightly. Turning around and heading to the front door, after making sure she looked presentable to whoever her visitor was, she opened the door to see Killer B, her fellow jinchuuriki, standing out front. In his hand, she noted, he held a letter, and she wondered if it was anything like the one she had received.

"Yo! How's it flowing, Yugito?" B rapped, _badly_ , in greeting to his fellow biju host.

"Hello, B, do you want to come in, or is there something that requires our attention?" Yugito responded.

"No need to flail, just something about the mail!" He told her.

"The mail?" Yugito asked. "So you got a letter too?"

"Yeah, a strange bird brought some stranger words." B nodded.

"I got one too." Yugito told him. "Did you reply to it?"

"Sure did, he sounds like a friendly kid." B replied.

"A kid? His handwriting was pretty neat, and he writes well. What makes you think he's a kid?" Yugito frowned.

"His mom is called Kushina, Kumo once tried to kidnap her." B told her. "That was only a few years ago, the kid can't be more than seven or eight at most, yo!"

"So Naruto is a Konoha ninja then?" Yugito pressed for more information.

"I don't think so, I could be wrong though." B shrugged.

"Should we report this to the Raikage then?" Yugito asked.

"Not really, his letters didn't ask for anything military." B answered her. "If they ever do, we can just say 'screw you'."

"I suppose." Yugito agreed. "It might be nice to just talk to someone... well, exchange letters with someone really, without all of the heavy stuff of being a ninja."

"That sounds divine." B nodded. "He might even hold mister nine!"

"Mister nine?" Yugito had to think about that one. "Wait, are you saying he's a jinchuuriki like us?"

B shrugged. "Kushina was the last host number nine had, though my theory isn't ironclad."

Yugito frowned. "I suppose having a jinchuuriki for a parent doesn't necessarily make him one, maybe one of us could ask him in a letter? That's assuming he sends one back to us of course."

"I asked him in my letter, so we'll soon know for worse or better!" B told her, his rhyming even more atrocious than usual there.

Her mind already mulling over the possibilities, Yugito bid farewell to B when he said his own 'unique' goodbye, and proceeded to shut the door.

When she got back to her bedroom, she closed the window, and got back onto her bed. Well, the letter had certainly gotten her mind off of her difficulties with socialising, but it had made her more confused than anything. How would a tree hugger kid find out about her, and why would he send a letter like that?

It didn't make any sense, but then again, real life rarely did. Ask any civilian how a ninja walked up walls, and only maybe one in a hundred would be able to tell you how it worked, the others would just say it was 'ninja magic' or something. Even with there being artefacts that belonged to the Sage of Six Paths around, his 'treasured tools', most of the world still thought of him as a fairy tale, and believed the tools were made by someone else closer to the modern day.

Perhaps she'd get some answers to her questions when next this 'Naruto' sent her a letter, or failing that, maybe she'd actually ask them herself when she sent a reply back. Either way, she would wait and see what happens, and make her mind up later.

xxxxx

Naruto yawned as Hinoe explained to him just why you couldn't turn a Fire Dart into a Fire Javelin. It all eventually boiled down to the size and stability of the technique though, so it _was_ fairly simple to understand. Basically, the larger you made something, the harder it was to have it not collapse in on itself.

On the other hand, because the javelin still only had two points of focus, one at each end, it was quite possible for Naruto to make the technique a reality. However, before that, he had to do some more control exercises, both for shape manipulation and nature transformation.

For shape manipulation practice, he had to stabilise a perfect sphere of reiryoku, slowly enlarging it while maintaining its integrity. A sphere, only having a single point of focus right in the centre, was the simplest 3D geometric shape used in techniques. However, it was also rather inefficient as well, all of the power being focused in the centre rather than the outer edge.

For nature transformation practice, he was forced to go back to basics in order to understand exactly what 'fire' was. In terms of youkai techniques, it was 'heat' and 'light' combined, just like the wood element to ninjas was the combination of earth and water. In addition to that, there was the fire triangle, which consisted of fuel, which was his reiryoku, heat, which was provided as part of the technique, and oxygen to act as an oxidiser.

Only when Hinoe judged him ready would he merge the two aspects together to form a 'Fire Javelin/Spear/Lance/Staff' or whatever he made from it. Until then, he had to work hard to make a fireball as big as his fist and keep it steady and stable despite how 'free-willed' fire actually was.

On top of all of that, however, Naruto was kind of tired. Despite how fast his new bird shiki flew, which was faster than both regular birds and running ninja, sending messages was still not an instantaneous thing, and because of the way he had created these particular shikigami, they hadn't stopped bothering him until he read the replies that the other Jinchuuriki had written to him.

Three were missing though. He hadn't sent messages to Water Country, especially as he knew about the ongoing civil war that was tearing the country apart. That cut out two of the three, what with the Mizukage being a jinchuuriki, as well as someone named Utakata.

The third missing one was supposed to be for a kid named Gaara in Suna, a red-haired boy who was the same age as Naruto. That didn't surprise him much though, the boy was apparently psychotic from what little he knew. There was only a very small handful of Kappa in Wind Country, and they all lived around a hidden oasis close to the 'hidden' village, so there was only so much they could 'report' to him.

The responses he'd gotten from his initial letters had been, somewhat surprisingly, quite friendly. Fuu, from Taki, was a few years older than him and she had similar hobbies as well, which was pretty cool, and they'd begun talking about what they liked about camping and how they hunted or trapped food.

From Earth Country, he had replies from Han and Roshi, the jinchuuriki of the gobi and the yonbi respectively. Roshi called him a fool for writing such letters, and that he shouldn't have bothered, but that didn't stop him from replying regardless. Han was friendlier, though he did also express his surprise at receiving such a letter, and said he would be happy to continue such correspondence.

The last two letters were from Kumo, and were perhaps the most reserved and cautious of the lot. Well, one of them was at least, Killer B seemed quite happy to write to him, thankfully without any attempts at rap, which the kappa report said was supposed to be quite bad.

Yugito's letter, on the other hand, seemed far more carefully written. It wasn't unfriendly, but it looked like she'd gone over it several times just to make sure she didn't reveal anything compromising about her village, which kind of made sense, Naruto supposed. In all honesty, he hadn't been expecting more than one or two responses, if he got any at all, so having all but one of those he'd sent letters to actually respond favourably was pretty awesome.

He'd continue sending letters for now, but who knows what might happen in the future. Heck, given how easily he could slip away from the village, he might even go and visit some of them during a school break or two. He'd have to be careful though and plan it in advance.

For now, he was content with what he had. The Hokage had wanted him to make friends, _human_ friends, and while he had probably meant for him to find such friendship with the villagers in his own village, he had never specifically said he couldn't make friends with those outside of the village.

If he knew though, the Hokage would probably worry. After all, he seemed to care for Naruto to some degree, and if he found out that he was forming more ties with 'foreigners' than he was with those of Konoha… well, it probably wouldn't be something to cheer about.

To Naruto, it wasn't much of a problem. As it was, he didn't really have anything resembling loyalty to Konoha as a village. He was fond of Akiko-sensei and the Hokage, but that was it, and being friends with two people wasn't the same as being loyal to an entire village.

The only reason he was even going to become a shinobi of Konoha was because of how much trouble it would be if he tried to leave. They believed he was the jinchuuriki of the kyuubi after all, and that was simply too much power to be left wandering by itself. On top of that, Naruto might actually have some sort of link to a clan! While the Uzumaki clan wasn't officially recognised in Konoha, it _was_ a clan, and along with a handful of others, they had formed a ninja village of their own.

"Are you even listening to me right now, Naruto?" Hinoe asked, interrupting Naruto's thoughts.

"Erm… yeah!" Naruto replied, trying to remember what it was Hinoe had just been talking about. "You were going on about… um… ah! You were saying that it's easier to make a sphere of energy if you spin it, because the rotation pulls it together and makes it easier to maintain the right shape!"

"Correct." Hinoe granted him that one. "The same is also true for something with two points of focus as well, and the spinning does give it some extra penetrative ability. However, anything with more points of focus than that is harder to control and tends to 'leak' a little of its shape out."

"Regular shapes are also easier to do, because it's all the same and you don't have to focus on different bits of it." Naruto continued. "Some other shapes are also relatively easy to form because of their uniform nature, or because of the way they are constructed. Such shapes include prisms, like a cylinder, and cones."

"Well done, that is exactly right." Hinoe told him. "However, the only way to actually create these shapes and hold them is to practise them, and practise them often. Now, I've kept you long enough, I believe two of your newest friends want to get started with you."

"Takame and Masami?" Naruto asked, referring to the two tsukumogami. "I was going to wait to practise with them until they'd gotten to know everyone properly. I don't want them to feel like I'm using them or anything like that, so I can wait a while."

"That's sweet of you, Naruto, but also unnecessary." Hinoe smiled. "They are tsukumogami, and their purpose is to be used as such. Just like beast type youkai have the instincts of animals and tend to reflect their habits, so too do all youkai, and you are disrespecting those two more by ignoring them than you would by wielding them."

"I didn't mean to do that, I'll go say sorry right now." Naruto scrambled to his feet, bid farewell to Hinoe, and then hurried off to apologise to the two girls he had recruited from Iron Country. Tsurara had kind of come along herself, so he didn't count her as 'recruited', and he hadn't actually seen her since she'd arrived.

When he'd asked about that, Tsuyukami had told him that she was doing something and that she'd be back once she'd finished it. Just what this 'it' was, no one had said, though he had been told that Tsurara would likely show him once she had completed it.

Anyway, for now he had to find Takame and Masami. That wasn't too difficult, as the two of them had struck up something of a friendship, or at least the beginnings of one, with Madara of all youkai. The lazy inugami seemed quite happy to chat with the two of them on whatever subject took their fancy, which was usually either sweets on Masami's part – Iron Country did have some rather unique frozen treats – or fights they'd gotten into in the past for Takame's part.

It didn't take him long to arrive at Madara's usual hangout, and he was right in thinking that was where he would find the two weapon tsukumogami, who were currently lounging around and chatting with the large, white dog-like youkai. They looked up when he came near.

"I'm sorry." Naruto immediately said. "I didn't mean to insult you or anything, but I didn't want you to think I was just using you or something, so I thought I'd give you time to get to know everyone around here."

"Told you." Madara snorted, looking at Takame. "The kid's no normal human, but he's not a youkai either, and he doesn't quite think like one. Give him time and he might, but for now he's stuck partway between mortal and otherwise."

"Fair enough, Lord Naruto, we should have said something." Takame said. "Now, are you ready to learn how to fight with me?"

"I am." Naruto nodded.

"Good." Takame said with a grin. "Now, let's start with what I am and how I am used. As a weapon, I take the form of a pair of tekko-kagi, metal claws. They're both an offensive and a defensive weapon. When used defensively, they protect the hands, allowing someone to defend themselves from an opponent holding a weapon. You understand that?"

"You're like a pair of armoured gloves." Naruto explained it in his own words. "So… you're good to use with taijutsu?"

"I suppose you could say that." Takame shrugged. "However, the strikes aren't normal ones. Because of my shape, you swipe at an opponent rather than punch them. Seeing as you're a ninja, poisoning my claws might be a good idea, that way you can make the best use of me, because even a scratch becomes potentially fatal."

"Because you're a 'hand' weapon, does that mean you know how to fight like a human does?" Naruto asked. "I mean, can you teach me hand to hand fighting as well?"

"No, I can't." Takame shook her head. "I can tell you where to hit someone to do the most damage, but most of the strikes, parries, and blocks I can teach you rely on my weapon form protecting your hands. After all, trying to block a sword with a bare fist isn't exactly a good idea."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense." Naruto admitted.

"Glad to hear it." Takame replied, settling into a fighting stance and having her weapon form appear over her own hands. "Now, are you ready? Let's see how much you can pick up when you're fighting against someone like me. Afterwards, we'll see how good you are when using me."

Naruto's eyes shot open in surprise at Takame's 'teaching' style, before he cringed inwardly.

He just knew this was going to hurt.


	13. Relaxation and Focus

AN: Another chapter, and the next logical step in Naruto's development. The next chapter should be quite obvious regarding what it's going to be about, and after that it will be the second and last mini-arc before ninja school! I'm sure all of you have been dying to see the more regular cast of Naruto turning up, so don't worry, they'll be there. I don't know how close Naruto will be with any of them, but we'll see what happens, 'kay?

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 13 – Relaxation and Focus

Naruto grumbled to himself as he continued practising his shape manipulation and nature transformation. While he could make a fireball the size of a tangerine with but a thought, and those that were between the size of an apple and a small melon were doable, he couldn't make one that was both football sized and stable.

The concept was rather simple. All he had to do was pour enough fire-natured reiryoku out of his hand to make a sphere big enough, grab it, compress it, and spin it. Voilà! You had a spinny ball of doom-fire that, if made unstable enough, would explode when thrown.

However, as soon as said spinny ball of doom was made larger than his fist, it had a tendency to collapse inwards on itself and explode prematurely. Thankfully, the basic medical potions Hinoe made – which he wasn't skilled enough to make himself yet – healed the burn marks he kept getting from such accidents.

He'd tried several different ways of reinforcing his 'magic ball', beyond simply repeating the same thing over and over again until it just _had_ to work. His first attempt had been to create a smaller, more dense sphere of reiryoku as a 'core' for the technique, but that simply made the explosion that much more spectacular when it did fail.

His second attempt at improving it had been inspired by cart wheels. He had made denser 'spokes' that were supposed to support the reiryoku construct from within. However, while these did work a little, they tended to act more like shrapnel than anything else when the sphere, inevitably, collapsed in on itself once more.

As things stood, the only way that Naruto could see of actually getting this damn thing to work was to solidify a 'shell' of reiryoku at the edge of the ball, and that meant more control exercises for him. The way Naruto's youkai 'jutsu' worked meant that they relied completely on his mental focus and ability, meaning new techniques were difficult, yet when they became familiar enough to him, it didn't take any focus at all to make them work, as forming them that way was now a 'habit' or something approximating that at least.

Still, his fireballs were awesome, even as small as they are, and he'd taken to juggling them as entertainment for the kappa and some of the other youkai. He'd even figured out how to make them different colours, and also how to make them switch colours while still active as well.

He'd earned a rather surprising amount of money by going around some of the villages and towns in Fire Country and putting on a performance every now and then.

Dismissing the fireball for now, Naruto decided to try working on something else to avoid becoming too frustrated by his lack of progress in that area. With this in mind, he turned to working on his shiki. His human form shikigami were functional, and actually usable in a battle setting, and his falcon shiki were good for delivering messages, if nothing else yet.

In the months since he'd managed that, he'd also made his first lot of wolf form shiki! They were very clumsy at first, but once he'd worked out how they were supposed to move, he'd taken to riding them all over the forest. It was exhilarating to ride them, going at speeds he couldn't go by himself. They were even large enough that he'd be able to ride them when he was an adult.

Of course, after this breakthrough, his skills with shikigami had reached another plateau. So, rather than eking out minor improvements here and there, he'd focused his shikigami development in an entirely different direction, one inspired by his tsukumogami friends from Iron Country.

Pulling out a short bit of wood from his pocket, Naruto used a sharp knife to etch the required symbols into it. Once he thought he had it right, he put the knife back into its sheath and stood up. Taking a breath, he channelled his reiryoku into the bit of branch and hoped for the best.

Instantly extending from each side of the roughly cylindrical bit of wood grasped in his left hand, two black 'arms' formed, twisting back on themselves and then turning slightly outwards again. From the tips of each 'arm', a thin black thread appeared, growing until it met in the middle and fused into a single string.

Grinning, Naruto looked at the shikigami bow he now held in his hands. It was longer than he was tall, but then again it was supposed to, that's how yumi bows were made after all. He'd already solved the problem of arrows as well. While he couldn't yet make a 'flame javelin', he could make a 'flame arrow', which was less than half the length a javelin was.

Taking a breath once again, Naruto began to form a fire dart in his right hand. Slowly, he began to lengthen it, even making it spin clockwise to make the shape easier to maintain. Eventually, the flame arrow was long enough to be put onto the bowstring.

Spreading his feet, he raised the bow and drew back the string, the arrow 'nocked' in place. Taking aim at a target he'd constructed and placed at the edge of the lake the kappa lived in, he released the bowstring.

Thud.

The arrow impacted the target, and while it was not the centre, Naruto was happy that at least it was working like it was meant to. He could work on accuracy whenever he had spare time, but right now, the bow actually worked like he wanted it to! Also, given that it was a shikigami rather than an actual bow, he could make it stronger when he had more arm strength in the future, meaning the arrow would travel faster, keeping it as a valid weapon to use against faster and stronger opponents.

Now for the final test!

Being as gentle as he could, Naruto withdrew his reiryoku from his shiki-bow. In the same way it had been formed, the black substance that all shiki were made of began to retreat back into itself. The bowstring split in half and shrank into the arms, which proceeded to shrink into the wooden core of the shikigami.

When the bare wood was revealed, rather than instantly disintegrating as paper talismans tended to do, the wood was cracked through with black veins of… something. Well, at least the bow hadn't _completely_ disappeared yet, though judging by the way the cracks were spreading, this type of wood at least was no good for repeated use of his shiki-bow technique. Perhaps Hinoe or someone else would know of a material that could withstand repeated applications of reiryoku.

It was progress though, and if he learned how to accurately aim his bow while riding one of his wolf shiki, _then_ Naruto believed he had succeeded in making himself a mobile and effective fighter. It was rather ironic that horse archers were more synonymous with samurai when he was on the path to becoming a ninja.

Slowly and steadily though, he would get there eventually. It had taken him almost two years to get to this point, and while he was approaching the level of a fresh genin, he wasn't there yet, and he wouldn't be for a while either. He had to be careful about how he went about strength and stamina training at such a young age after all, he didn't want to stunt his growth or anything, and while that left him as a rather physically fit almost seven year old, that was in comparison to others his own age, and not even at the level of those three to five years older than him, the actual genin.

On top of that, Naruto's skills so far were focused on basic weapon usage – as far as using his tsukumogami and things like clubs and shields went – and the few basic 'ninjutsu' style techniques he had went – which so far amounted to low-level fire manipulation and 'force blasts'. He had supplementary skills as well, trapping and potions, but they were support techniques rather than active ones.

Maybe it really was time to start delving into illusions and other misdirection techniques? They'd certainly be useful.

"You look focused, Naruto." A male voice commented from the tree branches above and behind him, making the blonde spin on the spot.

"Shin?" Naruto asked, catching sight of the one and only bakaneko in the forest. "Hi there, you startled me for a moment."

"You were as focused as you ever are." Shin shook his head. "Pay more attention to your surroundings or you are going to end up dead, Naruto. Ninjas must always be aware of a potential threat."

"I guess." Naruto mumbled.

"So what is on your mind?" Shin asked. "Is it just your archery, or is it something else? Has Tsurara's attempts at moulding you as she wants gotten to you? Has Madara annoyed Misuzu again?"

Naruto grimaced at that. It turned out that 'secret project' of Tsurara's had been icing over a cave she'd found and shaping her ice to make it resemble a human dwelling. She'd invited him to stay with her, but it was just too damn cold for him, and while he'd been polite about it, she still pouted at him and directed watery eyes in his direction.

"It's nothing like that, I'm just really nervous about becoming good enough." Naruto admitted. "The kappa have watched some of the clans as they train their kids, and the ones that actually take their training seriously..." He sighed. "I'm doing the best I can, but I'm neither Hatake Kakashi or Itachi Uchiha. Those two were already stronger than me by this age, and some of the clan children seem to be heading that way too. I mean, look at Sasuke Uchiha! He's apparently learning how to make a fireball bigger than a human, and I'm having trouble making one as big as my fist. Their physical conditioning is also better than mine, they _know_ just how far a human body can be pushed without going too far."

"Is that what has got you so worked up?" Shin asked. "If that is it, I don't see what the problem is. True, in a straight up fight, it sounds like you would lose against those your age, but so what? Ninjas don't fight fair if they can help it, is that not true? Rather than compare the size of fireballs in a strange parody of a genitalia measuring competition, use your shikigami, use traps, use ambushes."

The bakaneko shrugged. "You don't fight with your fists, Naruto, nor do you fight with your 'magical ninja powers'. You fight like a commander, a general, with your shiki as your troops. Play to your strengths rather than your opponents, and while you may not always win, you will always do better than if you had chosen to do otherwise."

Naruto sighed, but there was a slight grin on his face. "I suppose that's what I'm trying to do." He chuckled. "I mean, who else in the village is going to try and ride a wolf with a bow and arrow in their hands?"

Shin raised an eyebrow. "There is a clan with super-sized mutts, isn't there? Don't they ride their dogs into battle?"

"It was a rhetorical question." Naruto grumbled, pouting at the cat youkai. "And no, as far as I know, the Inuzuka don't actually ride their partners into battle."

"Pity, it would mean the dogs were where they belong." Shin mock-sighed.

"Try saying that to Madara." Naruto grinned up at the cat.

"No thank you, I'm not suicidal." Shin retorted with a smirk, relaxing on a branch.

Relaxing as well, Naruto fiddled with the core of his shiki-bow, and once again manifested it from the etched wood. He was pleased to note that, despite the degradation of the overloaded wood, the bow it made was just as good as his last one. He created several fire arrows and launched them one by one towards the target he had set up.

Shin watched in silence as Naruto went through the motions of creating an arrow, knocking it on the bow, firing said arrow, dismissing it when it did or did not hit the target, and then repeating the process all over again. It was actually quite hypnotising, and he didn't realise just how focused he became on the blonde human until Naruto dismissed his bow, only to have the wooden core fail and disintegrate.

"You'd be better off using wood from a kodama's tree for that, the older the better." The bakaneko commented.

"Do you have any idea which one around here is the oldest?" Naruto asked him.

"Yeah, it's the one about forty feet west of Sen's napping spot, you know where I'm talking about?" Shin replied.

"Where he always passes out when he has too much to drink?" Naruto clarified.

"That's the place." Shin confirmed.

"Thanks, Shin, I might just head on over there and see if the kodama is willing to spare a bit of a branch." Naruto said.

"No problem, Naruto, take care now." Shin bid him farewell as Naruto wandered off towards the tree in question.

xxxxx

Akiko looked across at her class as they all worked relatively quietly on the task she'd given them. It always made her smile when she saw children hard at work and learning something, it made her proud of all of them. Of course, she did have her favourites too.

Suzume was quite the bright young girl, and when she actually focused on what was in front of her, she got it done really quickly. She had to make sure to check over her own work though, as she did have the tendency to make a mistake here or there from going too fast.

Shihei was another one she liked. He shone best when she set them working in groups, as he always made sure that everyone got to do something they were good at, and that one person didn't have too much work piled on top of them. The fact he was always willing to help if he could didn't hurt either.

Her eyes then landed on the one she was most fond of, Naruto. The blonde boy had already finished the questions she'd given the class and was currently scribbling away in a notepad of his own. What exactly it said, she had no idea, as all of his personal notes were written in the youkai language or were seals, which to her looked like a literal scribble or strange little pictures respectively.

She remembered the last time she had visited him in the forest, where Naruto had shown her his wolf-shiki. She'd even ridden around on one as it ran all over the forest and even leapt through trees like a ninja. It had been a bit scary at first, but once she'd gotten over that, it was exhilarating, though what was best about it was Naruto's happy laughter as he rode another pitch black wolf alongside her.

He was such a happy boy. It was a shame that no one really knew him aside from herself. She knew that he called the Hokage 'Old Man', but she also knew that Naruto didn't visit him very often, and that he was more of a kind stranger than anything else.

She calmed herself down, reminding herself that Naruto had many friends amongst the youkai. They might not be human, but that didn't mean they were any less than anyone else. She recalled the disaster that was introducing Naruto to her nephew and niece.

Everything had been fine up until they'd tried playing a game with the other children at the park. It was then that mothers came and dragged their children away from Naruto, telling them to stay away from him. Naruto, knowing why they did that, wasn't particularly bothered. However, her sister's kids and the handful of others who weren't dragged away began asking questions that they weren't allowed to answer, and that only made the mess even worse.

Recently Akiko had begun to wonder what it really was that the Hokage was smoking, some things just made no sense at all to her. It was the Hokage himself who had let people know that Naruto was a jinchuuriki, claiming that the Yondaime had wanted him to be seen as a hero that kept the nine-tails at bay. He'd then, when people had needed a scapegoat and turned against the child, forbidden them from talking about it, which really hadn't made the situation any better.

If he had simply not told anyone about Naruto being a jinchuuriki, then so much of the negativity could have been swept under the rug or simply burned out over time. The only other option was to educate people about what being a jinchuuriki meant, and that was just impractical, not to mention even she had difficulty understanding seals, and Naruto had tried teaching her a few of the ones he used.

Not that he'd succeeded, or at least not very well. As a civilian, her chakra reserves were tiny, not to mention she had no formal training on top of that. Even then, Naruto didn't use chakra in his seals, instead relying on reiryoku, the spiritual half of chakra. At most, Akiko had been able to create a faint match flame to Naruto's fist-sized spinning fireball, and it had taken all of her effort to keep it there for three minutes, whereas Naruto could pretty much maintain his indefinitely.

Glancing at the clock, Akiko realised she'd gotten lost in her thoughts for longer than she'd imagined she had. Thankfully, there were no raised hands, meaning none of her students needed any help with any of the questions. It was almost the end of the day though, so she needed to dismiss them and send them out to their waiting parents.

"Alright, class, pencils down for now." She waited a moment, the clacking of wood on wood sounding out as they did as she told them. "For homework, I want you to finish any of the questions you haven't managed to do today, and I want it done by Thursday, okay?"

"Yess, Akiko-sensei." The class chorused back to her.

"Good, make sure you do." She nodded her head. "You can pack your things away and go home now. I'll see you all tomorrow."

The class once again did as she said. She watched them put their things in their bags and head towards the outside. Naruto lagged a little behind the rest, partially because he had his notes and other things to pack away as well, but also so that most of the others would have left before he headed home himself.

"So, are you making any progress on whatever you're working on now?" Akiko asked once it was just the two of them in the classroom.

"A little." Naruto admitted. "Making new seals is hard when you don't really know what you're doing, and the books on it are only available to genin and higher ranked ninjas."

"Seals?" Akiko tilted her head in confusion. "I thought you were getting quite good at them with Hinoe teaching you."

"Oh, youkai seals are fine." Naruto said. "It's just… you know the seal on my stomach, the one holding back the kyuubi? We're trying to figure out a safe way of interacting with it. There are three consciousnesses in the seal, and Riou suggested we try and figure out who the other two are. I mean, this is a seal on my own body, I really should know what it's all about, right?"

"The seal... if I remember right, you said it was connected to your own mind, correct?" Akiko mused. "In that case, couldn't you, I don't know, meditate or something and find out that way?" That was a guess on her part, she didn't know if it would even work like that.

"Two of the minds are dormant, and I don't know what would trigger waking them up." Naruto told her. "The only other mind in there is the sealed away one, the kyuubi itself, and everyone is reluctant to let me face that by myself right now. They'd be fine if they could possess me and meet the kyuubi as well, but we don't know right now where they would end up if they possessed me. Would they be on the 'me' side, or would they be shunted straight into the kyuubi's cage with it?"

Akiko shrugged. "I know absolutely nothing about seals, so I really couldn't tell you." She said. "Whatever happens though, good luck with it. If there's anything I can do to help, just tell me and I'll do what I can." She smirked slightly. "Maybe the kyuubi needs remedial maths lessons?"

Naruto laughed lightly at that, Akiko joining him, before he gained a contemplative look on his face.

"I wonder why the kyuubi is sealed up inside of me anyway." He muttered. "It's just a little weird, isn't it? They must have been wandering the world, doing whatever they wanted, for hundreds of years, and then along comes Hashirama Senju who just captures all nine of them and hands them out like presents. What happened to the nine-tails then though? Did he seal it inside of someone or just let it go, and why? How did the kyuubi even get as close to the village as it did on the day I was born? Surely someone should have noticed something that big before it started actually attacking?"

"I don't think he sealed it." Akiko replied. "Didn't Madara Uchiha fight Hashirama Senju _after_ he went around collecting the biju and giving them to the other villages? You know, the fight where he mind-controlled the kyuubi and used it to try and kill the Shodaime."

"I think so." Naruto replied hesitantly. "But after that, the biju kind of all disappear from the history books outside of wars and battles, the kyuubi especially, as it doesn't turn up again until the attack on the village."

"Maybe you could try asking it?" Akiko suggested, not quite believing what she was saying. "I know they're supposed to be 'beasts', but… well, it can't hurt to try, can it? I mean, youkai aren't even supposed to exist, yet we both know that's not true, so..."

"I guess." Naruto looked a little lost. "Honestly, I hadn't thought of something like that, it's a bit embarrassing."

Akiko chuckled at Naruto's faintly pink face. "Well there you go, I gave you an idea. I can do something after all."

"Of course you can do things!" Naruto suddenly burst out. "I mean, you're a teacher! You help people every day. If anything, you're better than any kind of ninja, and if I wasn't going to be one, and if I couldn't be an explorer, being a teacher would be a really neat thing to be!"

"Okay, Naruto, calm down." Akiko told him, slightly embarrassed herself there. "Thank you for saying that, and I know being a teacher is amazing, I chose to be one myself after all. Still, there's nothing wrong with being something else, and I think you will become an awesome ninja in time to come, and who knows, maybe you'll become an explorer too? Ninja get vacation time, don't they?"

"Um, I think so." Naruto paused in thought. "I mean, they accept missions when they decide to do them, and their training is left in their own hands… so I don't see why they couldn't have time off. I imagine that they'd have to give notice though, because the Hokage sometimes needs to send for ninja with particular skills or knowledge, which means he needs to know who is and isn't in the village, right?"

Akiko shrugged. "I'm a civilian, what would I know?"

"Fair enough." Naruto smiled.

"Now off with you, most of them will be gone by now." Akiko told him. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, Naruto."

"Bye, sensei." He bowed his head, before heading out of the door, his mind turning over Akiko's words.

xxxxx

"Are you truly, completely sure you want to do this?" Hinoe asked seriously.

"Yeah, Naruto, the kyuubi is a scary thing!" Tsurara added, hugging him from behind.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Naruto asked. "The seal is connected to my mind, yeah, but as I am not the nine-tails myself, there must be some sort of barrier between the two that stops me becoming what is within me. Given that, the most the kyuubi will be able to do is make noise or look threatening, and I'm not going to do anything rash just because it said something to me."

Benio transformed from her butterfly form and stood in front of Naruto, visibly agitated. "Listen, brat, the kyuubi is ancient. It's had centuries to learn how humans work, what makes them tick, and if it is remotely intelligent, then it should have been smart enough to learn a thing or two. It could be _very_ persuasive."

"Some youkai have been around as long as the tailed beasts have, how many of them properly understand humans?" Naruto countered. "You exist in the same world, see the same landscapes, and even live in the same space, yet a lot of you have never really thought about humans, have you? They're there in the same way that a dog is there, that a bird is there, right? That's how a lot of you thought, isn't it?"

Benio's eyes hardened. "Yes, it's true." She growled. "However, there is no guarantee that the kyuubi is the same. Regardless of what humans may claim, the biju are neither demons or youkai. They are an entirely different existence that breaks the basic laws of reality even more than we do. They are perpetual, self-sustaining masses of energy given physical form, so their logic might in no way resemble anything you're familiar with."

"I'll never know unless I try and make contact." Naruto stubbornly stood his ground. "It's less of a risk than one of you possessing me and possibly ending up in the same place as the kyuubi is. At least I have the advantage of going at it from my side of whatever divide exists in there."

Benio huffed. "I don't like this." She stated, before looking over to the side. "Well, do you two have an opinion in this matter or what? Speak up."

The two tsukumogami glanced at each other, before Takame stepped forwards. "You are correct in saying that there is a risk, but there is also a risk in leaving it alone. When she investigated the seal, Hinoe noted that the biju's corrosive chakra was eating away at the seal. It is slight, and it would take decades to fully erode at its current pace, but it's better to face your problems early, before they become too big for you to handle."

Masami nodded her agreement. "If you know something is going to happen anyway, it's best to do it where you're safe, no?" She said. "Sooner or later, he's going to be meeting the kyuubi within him. Whether that be when the seal eventually breaks or if he is ever forced to draw on its power, it's going to happen. Hell, he might die and meet the kyuubi then or something."

She shrugged. "I'm with Takame on this one, take things seriously from the start and you'll live longer." She then grinned slightly and sauntered forward, swaying her hips as she did so. "Of course, this also means you should have some fun when you can. My one and only wielder was a courtesan, and she knew how to have a 'good' time." She winked at them, laughing aloud when Naruto blushed bright red.

"Ah, teasing people is so much fun." Seeing their looks, she tilted her side to the side. "What, did you think I meant something else?" She sniffed. "Perverts, the lot of you."

Tsuyukami laughed lightly, shaking his head.

"Ah, I needed that, things were getting a little serious there." He looked to Naruto. "Do whatever you think is best, Naruto. If you think talking to the kyuubi might achieve something, go for it. If you think it'll only cause problems, then don't do it."

"We don't even know if this is going to work." Naruto mumbled. "Akiko-sensei admitted she knows nothing about seals _or_ jinchuuriki, so meditation might not do anything at all. Even if it did, maybe this seal is different and it keeps our minds totally separated or something."

"Weren't you saying 'you'll never know unless you try' a moment ago?" The masked shrine youkai responded. "So what if it does nothing? All it means is that it doesn't work. I really don't think simple meditation would be harmful to you, it would be a rather bad flaw in the seal if that was the case."

"You're right, I was." Naruto acceded that point. "So that's what I'm going to do."

Sitting down in the middle of the clearing, Naruto began to regulate his breathing. He focused on nothing but that, blocking out everything else to the best of his ability, until there was nothing but his own breath. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. Eventually, that began to fade, and he didn't focus on anything.

The youkai in the clearing watched as Naruto's regular breaths slowed, until he could probably be mistaken for being asleep, especially with his eyes closed.

They waited, hoping for a positive outcome for this situation.


	14. Nine Tails

AN: And here is the eagerly awaited initial meeting with the kyuubi. While it's not an instant 'partnership=forever' like I've seen in some fics - which honestly makes no sense to me - they're at least cordial with one another, which is something canon!Naruto didn't manage for a good while. I had fun with what I did to Kurama in this chapter, I actually had to stop writing I was laughing so hard, so I hope you enjoy it!

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 14 – Nine Tails

When he could no longer hear the sounds of the forest, the wind rustling the leaves and the grass, the creak of old trees, and the breath of the wild, Naruto opened his eyes. He expected to see something that was either very literal or very metaphorical, perhaps how his mind would interpret the seal.

What he saw was a large, earthen tunnel, like something a rabbit, fox, or badger would make into their home. It was much larger than any tunnel that Naruto had ever seen though, which made sense as the biju were supposed to be the size of mountains.

Getting to his feet, Naruto looked around, taking note of everything around him. Honestly, he was expecting… well, more of his mindscape. This was kind of boring in all honestly, where were the representations of his memories and thoughts? Was this what the Yamanaka clan saw when they used their mental jutsus on someone?

Wandering down the tunnel, Naruto soon came across what must have been the seal itself. A massive gate, stretching from the ground up to the ceiling, apparently held shut by nothing more than a scrap of paper with something written on it. That seemed rather flimsy to Naruto, he'd expected a lock of some sort that required a key of some description. Right now it looked like he'd be able to break the seal with minimal effort.

"Hello!" Naruto called out. "Is anyone there?"

Naruto paused, hearing movement in the darkness behind the seal. A few moments later, the nine-tails stepped into the light, revealing itself in all of it's glory. A magnificent creature, massive and powerful, with nine waving tails behind it.

"I thought you'd be bigger." Naruto couldn't help but comment.

The kyuubi's eyes narrowed. " **I used to be, before your damned father ripped me in two!** " It spat at the blonde boy.

"My father?" Naruto asked, surprised to hear something about his parent's from the nine-tai- "Wait, the only one that had anything to do with you was the Yondaime Hokage!"

" **Your point?** " The kyuubi growled. " **Did you not know who daddy dearest was?** "

"No, I didn't." Naruto admitted. "Wait, that's not what I'm here about. I actually came to talk to you."

" **And I care because?** " The kyuubi snorted. " **If you're here to demand my chakra, I'm not giving it up**. **That's what you want, right?** "

"Not really." Naruto shook his head. "I have so much reiryoku and my current techniques take up so little that it'll be a _long_ time before I need to even think about needing more power."

" **Then why are you here?** " The kyuubi asked.

"Honestly, I'm not entirely sure myself." Naruto shrugged. "It's just, I've had this seal on me since I don't know when, and it seems really stupid to know nothing about it, so… here I am."

" **Good for you, now leave, I have nothing to say to you.** " The kyuubi said.

"Do you mind if I ask a few questions first? I mean, there's so much I don't know about you." Naruto questioned the fox. "Why did you attack Konoha? What were you doing before that? What sort of things have you seen in your life?" He frowned, before adding on one more question. "Why are you being so… polite?"

" **What makes you think I had a reason for attacking your village, maybe it was just in my way?** " The fox shot back, though there was something in its voice that Naruto couldn't recognise.

"Well, you've been around for centuries, if not millennia, right? You've been around longer than recorded history at least." Naruto said. "So you must have lived somewhere else than around humans, and if you truly did hate humans as much as the books claim, you'd have wiped us out long ago. It's only in the last century or so that we've had the knowledge of how to seal something as powerful as you."

" **So you're not unintelligent.** " The kyuubi huffed. " **Fine then, if you wish to know so badly, I will tell you. When I was torn out of my previous vessel, I had barely a moment's freedom before one of those damned red-eyes forcefully took over my mind and made me attack your village.** "

"Red eyes?" Naruto wondered who that referred to. "And you were forced as well?"

" **Don't get me wrong, child, I would have gladly destroyed that village for all that it has done to me, regardless of whether I was controlled or not. As for the 'red eyes', I am of course talking about the Uchiha clan.** " The kyuubi informed him.

"I see." Naruto muttered, and the kyuubi watched in silence as Naruto sat there and thought over things by himself for a few minutes. Occasionally, one of his mutters was loud enough for the kyuubi to hear it, but without any context, none of it made any sense.

Eventually, Naruto stood up and spoke to the kyuubi again. "You've told me who my father was, could you tell me who my mother was?"

" **Kushina Uzumaki, my previous vessel.** " The kyuubi answered him.

"You said you were 'ripped in two', what did you mean by that?" Naruto then asked.

The kyuubi growled angrily, snarling as it bared its teeth. " **The damned Yondaime summoned the shinigami! What did you think that fucking thing did?! I've seen through your eyes, I know what you know, and you know that the shinigami isn't needed to seal a biju away. That fucking bastard ripped my soul in two pieces! I'm only half of the kyuubi, the yang half specifically!** "

"He did what?!" Naruto yelled, and the kyuubi was taken aback by the horror in the child's voice. "He ripped a soul in two! Why the hell would anyone do something like that, that's terrible!"

" **Something we can agree on.** " The kyuubi snorted. " **Now is there anything** _ **else**_ **you wish to say, or are you going to leave me in peace?** "

"Just a few things." Naruto said, getting himself under control. "First, there's two more consciousnesses in this seal, have you any idea where they are or how to awaken them?"

" **I'm inside the seal, how the hell would I be able to tell you anything about it?** " The kyuubi retorted.

"Okay, second, do you want to stay in this seal?" Naruto asked.

The kyuubi froze at that, its eyes narrowing at the blonde boy. " **What are you implying by that? I doubt you're just going to free me, not when doing so would kill you, so what is it you're suggesting? Just how would I be able to get out of here?** "

"Well, I just thought of it, so I don't know if it will work or not, but hear me out, okay?" Naruto said. "We both know some of your chakra is leaking through this seal and into me, so there's at least a small hole in there somewhere, right? On top of that, a biju _is_ a mass of intelligent, self-sustaining chakra. I was just thinking that if I mould some of your chakra properly, you might be able to possess it. Most of your power would still be behind the seal, but your mind would be free at least."

" **An…** **interesting idea.** " The kyuubi commented. " **How would you shape my chakra, and how would I possess it?** "

"You said that you've seen through my eyes, right? That means you know about my shikigami." Naruto asked.

" **I have spent most of your boring life asleep.** " The nine-tails admitted. " **It's only recently that I've bothered remaining awake long enough to take note of anything, and even then I've slept through a lot of it. I know of your shiki though, you've used them often enough that I've seen you use them, but what use are they? You create them and they obey you, that's it.** "

"That's how basic ones work, yes." Naruto agreed. "However, that's just the simple ones. More advanced shiki can be possessed, and Hinoe says she'll teach me an exploding version of them in the future too. I was thinking that if I power a possessive shiki with your chakra, you could then possess it through that link."

" **That sounds reasonable, and it's something the Yondaime probably didn't account for regarding this seal.** " The Kyuubi agreed. " **However, there is one problem. I know that your seals use pure reiryoku, yin chakra as humans call it, and I am the** _ **yang**_ **half of the kyuubi.** "

"Then I guess I'll have to experiment then." Naruto shrugged. "I have a few ideas already about how to make it work, though I don't know if they'll be successful. That's if you're willing to work with me on this."

The kyuubi was silent for a few moments, contemplating Naruto's offer. " **I refuse to give you access to my chakra… however, I won't fight you for control during your attempts to get me out of here. After that… well, we'll see what happens then.** "

"Alright then!" Naruto stood up. "See you later, I'd better get started practising and experimenting then." He waved at the kyuubi before vanishing from his mindscape.

The kyuubi huffed. " **What a strange human.** " It said.

xxxxx

Naruto opened his eyes once again in the real world. Immediately, he got to his feet and turned to Hinoe.

"Hey, do you know of a way for seals to use almost pure ki instead of reiryoku?" He asked straight away.

Hinoe blinked in surprise at the question. "No, I don't. Youkai rely purely on reiryoku, so there's no reason for any of us to look at ki at all. Why?"

"I'm going to try and make a possession shikigami for the kyuubi, which is apparently only half of the kyuubi, the yang half, which is why I asked." Naruto said, his sentence getting a little confused as he explained what he wanted.

"Well, reiryoku and ki are supposed to be complimentary opposites, so the only thing I can suggest is inverting the symbols for the seals." Hinoe shrugged. "That's the best guess I have as of right now."

"Right, okay, I'll try that." Naruto nodded, already reaching for a bit of paper and a pencil. "What extra symbols do I need for a possession shikigami, and where do I add them?"

"You're going to try it right now?" Hinoe asked.

"I might as well, no?" Naruto responded.

"If you say so." Hinoe sighed. "Just let me look over this seal before you activate it, okay?" She then took a scrap of paper herself and quickly sketched out what a regular possession shiki looked like.

"Right, let's try this." Naruto focused, and slowly began to copy the symbols out, but rather than draw them as they were, he drew _around_ them, like a colouring in exercise. It took him quite a bit longer than it would have normally, partially because he was using a few new symbols, but also because this was harder than just drawing the symbols themselves.

Once he'd finished it, and Hinoe had checked it over, he held it in his hand as he reached inside of himself, searching for the kyuubi's ki. It took him some time, as he was _far_ more used to using reiryoku, and even when he did find it, he had trouble properly grasping the incredibly dense ki, but he did it.

As he held onto the power with hands that were more mental than physical, Naruto could _feel_ the kyuubi's curiosity and anticipation as he funnelled all of that power into the talisman he held in his hand. Such a flimsy thing, a scrap of ordinary paper with pencil marks on it, and he was hoping it would be able to hold the power of something that could crush mountains with ease or cause tsunamis? When did the world stop making sense?

Naruto hissed in pain as bubbling, red chakra flowed out of his hand and into the talisman. He threw it away from himself and cradled his raw and throbbing hand. The kyuubi's dense power had flayed the flesh from his hand, despite the small amount of contact it had had, and now he was bleeding quite badly.

Holding his hand close, Naruto looked at the talisman now on the ground as the red substance began to expand and take form. Unlike his regular shiki, this one actually looked more defined, and less like a blob-thing. It looked far more solid, probably due to the far denser and more potent power used to make it.

Eventually, the red blob took the form of a fox, a regular fox that is and not one with the torso and hands of a human. It only had a single tail too. The thing was…

It was tiny, only about the size of an adult's clenched fist.

"Um, this is a surprise." Naruto commented. "I expected it to be inefficient, but this?"

" **Why am I so small?!** " The kyuubi yelled, still retaining its deep voice despite its size.

"Probably because this is the first time we've even tried to use ki for a reiryoku style talisman?" Naruto guessed. "Even with as dense as your ki is, with this much power, if you were formed of reiryoku, I'd expect you to be up to my shoulder at least, if not higher."

" **Fix this!** " The kyuubi yelled at him. " **Make me bigger! The size of a regular fox at least, not this tiny little form!** "

Naruto picked the kyuubi up, which now fit quite comfortably in the palm of his hand.

"This is the best we can do right now." He shrugged. "We'll try a few other things as we get more ideas, but we didn't even know if this was going to work at all, you know." He protested.

The kyuubi huffed, before making its way along Naruto's arm and onto his shoulder, whereupon it sank its teeth into his flesh. Naruto yelped, but wasn't too hurt. As sharp as its teeth were, the kyuubi's fangs were smaller than individual pieces of gravel.

"Hey!" He shouted. "We'll get you bigger, but it's not like we know what we're doing! It'll take time, just be patient, okay?"

" **Oh, and how are you going to do** _ **that**_ **?** " It asked.

"Well, we tried using inverted reiryoku symbols to make a ki seal and it worked, yeah?" Naruto pointed out. "All we have to do now is isolate how it worked, which variations work better, and then… construct an entirely new language to compliment one that already exists." He sighed. "Man, this is going to _suck_!"

" **And what am I supposed to do in the meantime? At this size, I'd be a tasty snack for a damn sparrow!** " The kyuubi complained.

"Well you could just stay with Naruto, that would keep you safe." Hinoe suggested. "Besides that, I don't know, what skills do you still have from when you were larger?"

The kyuubi wasn't happy about that suggestion, but it had to agree that sticking by Naruto was probably its best bet while it was so tiny. As for what it could do… well, the only skill it really had was the bijudama, and while it was this tiny, what could such a technique do?

Deciding to try it out, the kyuubi spat a pinhead sized ball of compressed energy at a nearby tree.

To the surprise of everyone, the kyuubi included, the ball of energy exploded when it hit the tree, tearing a basketball-sized hole in it.

"That was awesome!" Naruto exclaimed. "Teach me, please!"

" **There's nothing much to teach!** " The kyuubi tried to back up, not at all sure how to react to Naruto's sparkly eyes. " **It's just a ball of compressed chakra, that's it!** "

"Compressed energy, huh?" Naruto pondered, already thinking. He called a fireball to his hand, but rather than just spin it, he tried to pull it together. His grin almost split his face in two as the fireball got a shade smaller than it was before, and the spinning got faster as well. Trying to compress it further, Naruto began to sweat at the effort. Apparently compressing reiryoku was a lot harder than simply shaping it. Still, it was an interesting idea and something else to work on.

The kyuubi watched without comment as it saw the fireball in Naruto's hand, holding back a snarl. It looked to it like the Yondaime's 'rasengan', a pale imitation of a bijudama. There were differences though, the most obvious one being that the rasengan was made up of multiple layers of chakra rotating in separate directions, whereas this fireball only span one way. The Yondaime had never managed to make an elemental version of the rasengan though, and his kid looked to be well on the way to doing so.

"Ah well, I'll work on this some other time." Naruto sighed, seemingly a little disappointed in his attempt at emulating the signature attack of the tailed beasts. "For now… what was I doing again? There's so much on the list I don't even know where to start."

Benio gave the kyuubi an amused look. "As much as I'd like to suggest you work with Takame and Masami on how to fight, the midget looks like he'll try and tear your throat out if he doesn't get bigger some time soon."

Takame shook her head. "I would only ask a minimum of an hour a day from Naruto, though I would prefer two. It doesn't matter to me when myself and Masami get that time, just that we do. If he wants to work on something else in his own time then he is free to do as he pleases."

Hinoe chuckled. "Naruto is advancing quickly in what I am teaching him. If I have him for an hour and half a day, I believe I can teach him all that I know in… oh, roughly five years I'd say. He may not even take that long, it all depends on how quickly it takes him to succeed at the tasks I give him."

"I _do_ have school you know." Naruto commented dryly. "And you know that the kappa will bother me to no end if I don't play with them every now and then." He sighed. "Saying that, I can dedicate some time each day to trying to work out a language for ki seals… and I can't believe I just said that."

" **Why not, brat?** " The kyuubi asked. " **Doesn't the thought of success, of doing what no one else has ever done, make you feel accomplished?** "

"It's not that." Naruto shook his head. "It's actually a really damn awesome idea, and just the thought of actually managing to do that makes me fell ten feet tall! It's just… apart from you, who's going to bother with it? The only reason you actually care about it is because the Yondaime tore your soul in half."

" **Why do your reiryoku seals matter then? You're the only one who's going to use them, every other ninja out there is just going to use regular fuinjutsu.** " The kyuubi commented.

"But it's not just me, is it?" Naruto protested. "All youkai use reiryoku, and while not many of them bother with seals or techniques, it's still more than just me." The blonde boy recalled the scrolls he'd collected from Iron Country. While most of them had been about myths and legends of the youkai, there'd been a handful of useful stuff in there too. There'd been a seal that would make youkai visible to regular humans, and even one that-

"Hey, Hinoe!" Naruto suddenly turned to the woman in question. "You remember that seal that would let me summon youkai that had given me their names? Could we modify that so it would be, you know, less binding?"

"In theory, yes." Hinoe said. "However, I wouldn't know where to start with it, and I've already told you how important a youkai's name is."

That was right. If a youkai gave up their name, they would be putting themselves under the complete control of someone else. They were literally incapable of disobeying their 'masters', giving up their free will utterly. Naruto wasn't particularly comfortable with such a thought, even when he'd been assured that it was a sign of immense respect to be given a name freely and without having to force it from someone.

Naruto looked at the kyuubi. "I don't suppose you know how summoning contracts work, do you? I only know that they exist and who has some of the more famous ones."

" **I know that toads are fat and heavy.** " The fox groused. " **As for the contracts themselves, all I know is that the summoner signs their name in blood and their fingerprints are below that.** "

"The _summoner_ signs the contract?" Hinoe asked. "Not the summoning clan?"

" **Yes**." The kyuubi nodded its tiny head.

"Hmm, perhaps the summoner makes themselves part of the summoning clan." Hinoe mused. "The contract wouldn't need a _true_ name if a human's birth name is enough, so perhaps..." She trailed off, before shaking her head. "I have a few ideas, but we'll shelve them for now. I'm already trying to work out a way to emulate a ninja's high speed movement technique, and I really don't need something else on my mind at the same time."

"How is that going anyway?" Naruto asked.

"Better than it might otherwise, but there's no complete success yet." She shrugged. "I can get them to move at the right speed, but they don't exactly come out of it in one piece. I'm having to alter what I've already got down of the technique so it also reinforces the body while also accelerating it to the required speeds. It's a balancing act of effect versus result. After all, it's pointless making a technique if it costs too much reiryoku to use."

" **If it's a technique for blondie here, don't worry about how much power it takes.** " The kyuubi interrupted her. " **Even without my own chakra leaking into his coils and expanding them, he has top-tier Uzumaki reserves, and they were real chakra monsters amongst humans.** "

"Really?" Naruto asked. "That's interesting. It still doesn't make much difference though, the techniques I use aren't large-scale, so it'll still take a very long time for me to burn through all of my reserves."

" **Accuracy and efficiency over collateral damage?** " The kyuubi mused.

"Well, there's probably going to be a point in the future where I'll likely need something big, but I'm not even an academy student yet, much less an actual ninja. I have plenty of time to learn what I have to, so why go to the big stuff first rather than work my way up to it?" Naruto shrugged.

Tsurara leaned over Naruto's shoulder to look at the tiny fox. "By the by, kyuubi, aside from that exploding thing you used on that poor tree, what can you do?"

" **That's about it, I've never actually needed anything else.** " The fox shrugged. " **Then again, I used to be more reasonably sized, and where a bijudama didn't work raw strength served me just fine.** "

Hinoe looked at the kyuubi curiously. "In that case, would you care to learn how to do other things? Perhaps you would like to breathe streams of fire, electricity, or even acid." She suggested. "Finding out how differently you manipulate your ki might even make it easier to modify the talismans so you can become larger than you currently are."

" **I've never cared for the techniques of humans before.** " The kyuubi admitted. " **I've never** _ **needed**_ **them either, but in this case you can count me as a willing student.** "

"Very well then." Hinoe clapped her hands together. "While Naruto is at school, I'll teach you what I can and we'll see what happens. Perhaps we can even find out a way for you to fight with more grace than you currently do. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you've won all your previous fights with nothing more than brute strength, correct?"

" **Like I said, I've never needed anything else.** " The mini-kyuubi responded dryly. " **This will make for an… interesting change.** "

Hinoe smiled, and it was a very strange smile.

"Oh, I'm sure it will be." She said.

xxxxx

Several days later, Naruto was practising his archery.

Shin had been right when he'd said a bit of wood from a kodama tree would handle reiryoku better. His current bow's core was made from just such a material, and despite being created several times over already, there didn't seem to be any visible damage to the core yet.

He was also experimenting with different 'arrows'. Flame arrows, from his fire manipulation practice, came easily to him. Pure reiryoku arrows were both simpler and harder at the same time. They were simple in the way he didn't have to convert his reiryoku into fire, but as he hadn't practised making such arrows much, it actually took mental effort to not habitually make them out of fire.

He could make arrows of light as well, though they weren't particularly effective as a weapon due to them not doing any actual damage, either physical or spiritual. He was trying to form other arrow types as well, but it was slow going for now. Not that he was having _no_ success, it was just that they took so long to form that they just weren't a viable option in an actual fight.

Deciding to practise making such arrows, Naruto felt for the wind, pulling it together into the shape he needed it to be. Wind arrows were good for blunt force in Naruto's experience. They were good for knocking things over or pushing them back with little damage, and if they followed chakra theory, then they could also be enhanced by fire techniques, but he hadn't found a way to test that out yet.

After raising his bow properly, Naruto took aim, releasing the wind arrow as he exhaled.

He grinned as he hit the target he was aiming for, and then began to prepare a different arrow type. His accuracy had gone up fairly quickly once he'd gotten the hang of actually using a yumi bow. The way to do it was remain calm while you fired an arrow, and experience would help you adjust for wind and distance. He didn't have much experience yet, but give him time and he'd manage.

Looking at the arrow he had created, one of crackling electricity, Naruto gulped nervously. Electricity was one of the five 'ninja' elements, but it was also _very_ hard for Naruto to create and control. He would get better though, electric arrows flew through the air the fastest and penetrated the target the deepest, making them his most effective arrow type. If only it didn't take him twenty seconds to create and stabilise a single one of them!

" **That's an interesting way to fight.** " A deep voice said from off to the side.

Not jumping much in surprise, Naruto turned to the kyuubi – for who else did he know who spoke in bold? - and asked him what he meant by that.

" **In my experience, ninja prefer to throw little bits of metal at each other or toss their elemental techniques about the place. I do not believe I have** _ **ever**_ **seen a ninja actually use a bow at all.** " It responded.

"Well why not?" Naruto said. "It's an effective weapon, isn't it? It's got a better range than a kunai or shuriken, or it will when I get better with it, and using some sort of massive elemental dragon to kill one guy just seems like all kinds of overkill to me."

" **As opposed to an army of shikigami? If you're playing the game that way, you should not be pointing fingers either.** " The kyuubi commented.

"I'm neither fast nor strong enough to fight on equal footing with people so much better than me." Naruto wryly stated. "When I get stronger, my shiki will be by my side when I need the numbers. Besides, is there something wrong with having an entire army at my beck and call at any moment? It's an effective tactic, no?"

The kyuubi snorted. " **My previous vessel, your mother, thought much the same.** **She used to toss some sort of clone, shadow I think, about the place like candy.** **It was only made worse when she started actually creating techniques of her own, it's part of the reason she was as feared as much as she was.** "

"My mother created techniques?" Naruto asked curiously.

" **Never anything particularly strong.** " The kyuubi told him. " **But she was almost Uchiha-like in how many she had, and she was a tricky bitch with a tendency towards humiliating her opponents before killing them. It wasn't intentional, at least I don't think it was, she was simply a natural prankster. The seal used to restrain me within her was an absolute bitch and a half, but watching her defeat other humans was rather entertaining.** "

"What sort of seal did she have?" Naruto wondered aloud.

The kyuubi growled. " **I was chained to a fucking rock and pinned down like a trampoline.** **Your seal at least gave me a little room to move, and Mito's was hurriedly put together so it was also better than your redhead bitch of mother's seal.** " He snorted. " **You know she actually came to see me in the seal at one point and said that she would 'defeat' me. Apparently Mito told her that only love could counter the hatred within me.** "

"Wait, what did you do that was so wrong that everyone thought you were some sort of avatar of hatred?" Naruto wondered.

" **Fuck all.** " The kyuubi snarled. " **Madara 'fucking' Uchiha mind-fucked me to be his toy, and then Hashirama 'fucking' Senju shoved a tree up my ass, decided I was too powerful to wander around without human supervision. When I was finally freed of your mother, another fucking Uchiha mind-fucked me once again!** "

"It sounds like your the victim more than anything there, kyuubi." Naruto frowned. "Especially with what the fourth did to you. Just why did he decide to rip you in two?"

" **Your guess is as good as mine.** " The kyuubi sighed. " **By the way, my name's not 'kyuubi', it's Kurama."**

"And mine's Naruto, as you know." The blonde smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Kurama."


	15. Slice of Life

AN: Another chapter has arrived, whoo! Not to sure what to say in this AN, but there's a few things that have been raised on the forum or in reviews. First off, for reference, Kurama currently looks like Viximon, the In-Training Digimon. Secondly, can anyone think of any good 'monsters'? I want to avoid the stereotypical dragon, but I want something massive and terrifying, something that at least approaches boss summon size. It doesn't even have to be a 'real' monster, perhaps an amalgamation of several, just something big and scary. Any ideas would be gratefully received, thank you.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 15 – Slice of Life

Resting lazily on a tree branch, Kurama watched Naruto practise his archery, while he contemplated recent events.

The boy was strange, of that there was no doubt. When he had been sealed previously, all of his vessels had had something that they wanted to say to him. Mito had told him, on more than one occasion, that he was a beast that needed to be tamed, and that he was too wild for a 'civilised' world. Kushina had been similar, but instead of repeating Mito's words, she'd told him that love would conquer his hatred, and other such drivel.

When Naruto had first come to see him in the seal, it hadn't been to declare his beliefs to Kurama, and nor was it to demand chakra… Kurama had to pause there as a mental image forced its way into his head, a blonde pre-teen wearing an ugly, orange jumpsuit demanding 'rent' from him.

That was ridiculous, Naruto was his jailer, not his landlord. It would be his pleasure to be 'evicted' for not paying his rent.

Shaking himself, Kurama went back to his observations. What was he thinking about again? Oh, yeah, Naruto when he first came into the seal. The fox almost laughed at the memory of Naruto's indignation regarding the fourth's chosen method of defeating him.

Perhaps it had something to do with growing up around youkai, purely spiritual beings, but Naruto had been greatly disturbed by the thought of a soul being torn in two. He'd later asked what effect that would have on Kurama, and whether they could be considered two parts of one being now or of they were more like Siamese twins that had now been separated.

Truthfully, Kurama couldn't answer him. As all of the current biju were fragments of the juubi, there _was_ a previous example to draw conclusions from, but what exactly the sage had done when he created them… well, the biju remembered their own birth about as well as a human does.

Seeing as he himself was a part of the juubi that was separated, and now he and his yin half had been separated, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to consider them two separate entities, though whether this logic carried over to the actual metaphysics of it was another matter.

It was entirely possible that tearing him in two like he had been would prevent him from reforming if his current vessel died. Perhaps his yang chakra would wait around for eternity for his yin chakra, refusing to reform until it was 'complete'. On the other hand, it could be that he might fully regenerate, yin chakra and all, even without the half of himself that had been taken by the shinigami.

It was a risk, and not one Kurama felt like testing out at present. After all, while things could be better right now, they were also a lot better than they had been before. He had a physical body – even if it was a tiny little blob with legs and a tail – and he could wander as he pleased in the outside world.

It was one of the reasons he was currently not being particularly antagonistic towards Naruto. Oh, he still bit the blonde boy and fired underpowered bijudama at him – it was rather entertaining getting into an argument with the kid – but the boy was just as willing to retaliate in kind. Hinoe was already becoming annoyed by their frequent little brawls, though she also admitted to some amusement at seeing something so tiny get the best of Naruto every now and then.

Kurama still hated humanity though, that hadn't changed in the slightest. Humans were pathetic, arrogant, self-entitled, and all round dicks in his opinion. They feared what they didn't understand and hated that which was different, preferring to hide behind their own beliefs.

Having seen through Naruto's eyes though, Kurama knew that the blonde didn't think that way. While he did mostly interact with the humanoid youkai, he was also quick to befriend others, like that Madara inugami, the mizuchi known as Ran, or some of the others.

What appeared to be a cat with a ridiculously long tail landed on a branch nearby.

"Having fun there, fox?" Shin, the bakeneko, asked. "I must say though, I too find watching Naruto practise his archery somewhat relaxing."

Kurama scoffed. " **And just what is so riveting about a little human launching arrows into a stationary target? Now if it was another human however, that might be a little more entertaining**." He grinned nastily at Shin, who merely rolled his eyes at the biju.

"Dramatic, aren't you?" Shin replied casually, not at all threatened by the fox's act. After all, it was currently inhabiting a body created with one of Naruto's talismans, so if it did do anything, all Naruto had to do was cancel the shikigami body Kurama was inhabiting and refuse to let him out again.

Huffing in response, Kurama simply continued to watch the blonde launch arrow after arrow into the target, switching between spirit, fire, and lightning arrows every now and then.

Shin, however, attempted to continue their conversation. "Are you enjoying having a body of your own?"

" **I'm tiny enough that a human could step on me, what do you think?** " Kurama acidly responded.

"You at least _have_ a physical body though." Shin retorted.

" **I suppose I do**." Kurama admitted. " **However, it is severely lacking.** "

"Give Naruto time, he'll work something out." Shin told him, before pausing. "By the way, there's something I've been meaning to ask you; could you always see youkai, or is it only since you were sealed into Naruto that you could do so?"

" **Since the sealing**." Kurama replied. " **The fact I still can see you is proof enough that I'm still tied to the kid**."

"Hmm, curious." Shin mused to himself.

Kurama didn't offer any response to that, content to just nap away the daylight hours. He was warm in the sunlight, he was comfortable on this branch, and he was as at peace as he had ever been in the last… oh, it must be getting onto about a century since he was first sealed inside of Mito Uzumaki, or at least seventy or eighty years. They all just blended together in his memory.

xxxxx

Naruto lowered his bow, looking at the now rather heavily damaged target standing across from him. He was quite pleased to see his practise was beginning to pay off, as while they weren't all perfect bullseye shots or something ridiculous like that, all of his arrows had hit within the second black ring at least.

Letting the bow return to the short stick of wood that was its core and putting it away, Naruto pulled out two more 'shiki-weapons' he'd made. He had to grin to himself at that. While the Konoha Public Library had absolutely zero chakra-based techniques in any of the available books, there were some interesting things in some of the history books.

Naruto's smile widened as the shiki-weapon revealed itself to be an old-fashioned repeating crossbow, a Zhuge Nu or Chu-ko-nu as they were otherwise known. It had been surprisingly simple to put together actually, when he'd made a prototype of it so he knew how it worked – after all, he couldn't make a shiki of something he didn't understand.

He'd even made some small improvements on the design he'd found! Rather than a fixed magazine attached to the lever mechanism of the bow, he'd made it into two separate pieces, essentially giving it a removable magazine, which was great on the reload time.

After clipping a magazine of metal tipped wooden bolts onto it and then raising the crossbow, Naruto began firing it as quickly and accurately as he could. He went through the twenty loaded bolts in just over fifteen seconds, and the spread of hits on the target was less than pleasing. He then took six seconds to remove the spent magazine and clip a fresh one in its place.

Once he'd gone through four magazines worth of bolts, Naruto set the repeating crossbow aside. In its place, he revealed the second shiki-weapon he'd been able to make. This one was rather similar to the repeating crossbow he'd just been using, with the major differences being the greater size and lack of magazine.

In Naruto's hands was an arbalest, a large and heavy crossbow that used a winch system to draw the bowstring back. Using that system, Naruto prepared to fire a bolt from his weapon and braced himself against the force he knew was coming. Honestly, Naruto was a _bit_ too small and young to be using something with as much recoil as an arbalest did, but if he didn't know how to use one, how would his shiki?

That was what Naruto's problem currently was. When thinking about it, and imagining 'archer' shikigami, he hadn't taken into consideration the amount of strength needed to draw the bow back when he eventually got on to using heavier and heavier bows. While he was human, and could one day be very strong, shiki simply didn't have the same power he did.

Therefore, rather than abandon the idea completely, he'd looked into alternatives. It was while he was in the history section of the library that Naruto had come across siege weapons, something that was apparently once used by civilian military forces during the warring clans era. It had been there that he'd come across catapults, trebuchets, and ballistae.

It had only been one small step from ballistae to crossbows, and he'd started looking into the different types of crossbows that existed. Looking at the different crossbows, he'd found himself fascinated by the way their designs had to balance between rate of fire, power, accuracy, and ease of use.

The repeating crossbow, while lacking in actual punch and accuracy, was very simple to operate and was at the top in terms of rate of fire. The arbalest, on the other hand, had a very low rate of fire and took a little effort to reload, but its power and accuracy were amazing to the young boy.

It seemed Naruto had found his solution to his shikigami archery problem. Instead of bows and arrows, he'd instead arm them with crossbows. They were strong enough to use them, and if they worked together, like a squad, they could make for something that was a legitimate threat to a ninja.

Holding the arbalest steady, Naruto let loose another bolt. Checking his accuracy before loading another one and firing it, he was quite happy to see that his accuracy was even better than with a yumi bow, even without anywhere near as much practice.

He'd keep going for a while longer though. At present, he was only capable of firing one shot roughly every thirty seconds, and while that wasn't bad, he wanted his shiki to be able to manage three shots per minute if he could.

"Playing with toys still, Naruto?" A voice called out.

"Weapons, not toys, Shin." The blonde replied. "Can't you see what the arbalest has done to my target?"

"The arbalest being the big one, I'm guessing?" Shin shrugged. "Such a thing might amount to a toothpick for those like Misuzu, all but useless really."

Naruto shrugged. "Well, Misuzu is a lot bigger than a human, isn't he? It'd make sense that it'd take something more to hurt him, but then again, do you know what a mounted ballista is?"

"No, and I don't particularly care to either." Shin responded, though not unkindly. "Honestly, humans complicate killing each other too much. It's so much easier to understand when the bigger and stronger amongst you possess the power to make others bow before you."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Do I need to be concerned about you possibly becoming a tyrannical dictator?" He joked.

Shin scoffed. "Hardly, it's too much effort to really bother with."

Naruto chuckled, mumbling 'lazy cat' under his breath, though he knew that Shin would not deny it. He then asked whether there was anyone looking for him, or if anyone would mind if he kept up his archery as he found it very relaxing. He'd finished with Hinoe's lessons for the day, and had trained with Takame and Masami, but there was no telling when the kappa would come and bug him to play a game with them, and there were other youkai that sought him out occasionally.

"No, there's nothing really going on right now, not that I know of at least." Shin told him. "Hinoe _did_ make a breakthrough with that 'rapid movement' technique she's been working on, but she's found it to be far too inefficient to bother with and has decided to try a different approach. I'm not sure what, but I believe that she said she would call the technique 'hirenkyuaku' if it works how she thinks it might."

"That's interesting, I wonder how long this will take her to work out." Naruto commented as he went to retrieve the crossbow bolts embedded in his target, mentally grumbling over how quickly he tended to go through the damn things. Maybe he should start using nothing but light arrows when training? Then again, he needed to learn how to form other arrows faster, especially his lightning arrows, so he'd just have to put up with it.

"I believe she already has a good foundation for the technique. Hopefully she'll get it done faster than she did with the ninjutsu imitation she was attempting." Shin replied. "She did mutter something about 'separate moving entities acting in concert' when I last passed by her."

Naruto smiled, it was just like Hinoe to get lost working something out. As frustrated as she got doing so, she truly enjoyed learning new things, and it was one of the primary reasons she was one of the few 'scholarly' youkai around.

"What about you, Kurama?" Naruto called out, seeing the tip of his tail. "Enjoying yourself?"

" **I'm having a nice and relaxing nap, brat, shut up and go away**." The fox replied.

Shaking his head, Naruto pretty much ignored the fox's attitude. The last few days with him around had been interesting, and the human boy had developed a few theories about the fox on his own. For example, giving him his name wasn't something that Naruto had expected, however there might be a few reasons for it.

First off, Kurama may truly be that thankful for at least a measure of freedom that he treated Naruto, while not with a great deal of good will, at least without too much animosity. A second, and to Naruto more likely, reason was as a test of some sort. As the biju weren't youkai, the same rules didn't apply to them, including being bound by their name. Nevertheless, Kurama might have been testing Naruto to see if he would even attempt to bind him in some way, which he hadn't.

Seeing Naruto smile and turn back to his archery, Shin spoke up one more time. "Tsurara said she's going to be doing the cooking this evening." He said. "I think she overheard someone in the village say that 'the way to a man's heart is through his stomach'. Be prepared for whatever she decides to make."

"Will do." Naruto replied. "Thanks for telling me."

"No problem." Shin replied. "I, myself, am rather curious whether the frost woman will be able to cook something fit for human consumption."

"And there goes my appetite." Naruto muttered, before shaking himself. Who knows, maybe Tsurara would turn out to be a really good cook. For now, he was training and relaxing at the same time, all that mattered was his arrows and his target.

xxxxx

Tsurara gave the cooking pot a frustrated luck. The blazing fire underneath it would, in normal circumstances, be rather unbearable to be near. However, as a creature of ice, Tsurara's nature as a yuki-onna was working against it. This made cooking anything at all… rather difficult.

It didn't help that whenever she tried to pick something up it got cold very quickly. For now, she was making a simple soup, something so simple even she couldn't screw it up. She had to tie a long stick to the handle of a ladle to stir it though, which was rather annoying.

A growl from off to the side got a small smirk of amusement from Tsurara, though she was forced to duck as a shikigami slammed into a tree on the opposite side of the clearing.

"Getting all worked up over there, Hinoe?" She asked, looking at the youkai as she scribbled down some notes while several shiki attempted to move at high speed around her.

"It works, it does!" Hinoe exclaimed. "It's just… so difficult to control." She sighed.

"Why don't you tell me about it?" Tsurara suggested. "Maybe you'll think of something new while you talk."

"I suppose that's as good as anything else right now." Hinoe muttered. "Anyway, you know what I was trying to do before, right? Create a high speed movement technique to imitate the one human ninjas have? Well, I found out it was possible, but reiryoku is really not suited to physical things like that, so the energy cost was simply ridiculous for little gain."

"I know, that's why you're trying another method, right?" Tsurara nodded absently.

"Exactly." Hinoe agreed. "This time I'm trying to create a small platform of reiryoku beneath my feet that I can control remotely, and as I am on top of it, I would go where it does. That understandable?"

"Sure. Rather than force yourself to move at high speed, you are instead 'riding' something that does the moving for you, kind of like how humans ride horses, yeah?" Tsurara answered her.

"Not the best comparison, but it fits I suppose." Hinoe grumbled. "Anyway, actually creating the platform isn't a problem. It's basic shape manipulation really, and sticking to it is easy, you can just use those tree and water walking exercises the kappa spied on. It's actually moving the platform that's the issue."

Tsurara's eyes flickered up to the now dented tree. "I can see, too much acceleration?"

"No, actually, getting up to speed is easy, it's stopping that's the problem." Hinoe told her.

"I'm sure you'll get it down soon enough." Tsurara comforted her. "You haven't been at it long, and you're already at this point. It's also more efficient than the other method you were researching, right?"

"Oh, massively." Hinoe sighed. "I think it's the ki part of chakra that the body flicker relies on mostly, so trying to emulate it with nothing but reiryoku was pretty much doomed to failure from the start. There's probably a number of other techniques I won't be able to emulate because of that."

"Hmm." Tsurara gave a hum of acknowledgement. "Hey, Hinoe, does this soup look right to you?"

Getting to her feet and wandering over, Hinoe took a look at what was in the pot. "It looks fine to me. Leave it to simmer for a while though and I'll go see where Naruto is. Perhaps by the time we return it will be ready to eat."

"Sounds good to me." Tsurara cheered.

Hinoe chuckled to herself at Tsurara's enthusiasm as she began wandering off in the direction of where Naruto always set up his archery targets. If he wasn't there, she'd try the kappas' lake, and failing that she'd wander into the human village, to the library. Aside from school and his own little camp, those were the places he spent most of his time.

Tsurara kept an eye on the soup as Hinoe disappeared between the trees, quite proud of her accomplishment. She had never cooked human food before, so she was quite relieved that she had apparently succeeded at the task. Now, all she had to do next was figure out how to make herself even more appealing to Naruto.

From what she'd seen so far, Naruto preferred strong, independent females. That was good, as she was rather strong herself, and she was also capable of looking after herself. Now, what else did Naruto seem to like… well, there were those letters he was exchanging with foreign jinchuuriki, so he liked making friends, but that wasn't very useful to her…

He seemed to enjoy his archery as well, and if she'd heard right he also liked reading about history, especially more ancient history… Hmm, perhaps for his birthday in October she could get him some scrolls on youkai history. She knew a few youkai up in Iron Country that would be willing to deal with her, or would at least be too scared of yuki-onna to think about trying something stupid against her.

Now, what else could she do?

Well she had to get on the good side of that Benio youkai, she was a near constant around him, rarely leaving his side. Hinoe was another she would have to get along with, his main teacher and perhaps even something of a mother figure to him as well. The kappa that Naruto was friends with were easy, a little friendliness and they counted you as one of them. Even better, she did like the kappa, so all of her feelings in this regard were truly genuine and not fabrication.

She began humming to herself. It was no particular song or anything, but it felt right to do so, and the upbeat tune did make her smile that smallest bit wider. Oh, how she looked forward to when Naruto was older and she could _really_ start getting down to the more… 'x-rated' things she wanted to do. He was a good kid now, but what would he be like in a decade?

Tsurara didn't notice as her eyes became slightly unfocused and she began to drool slightly. With all of the physical training he was putting himself through, and that wild, untamed look he got from living in the forest on top of his piercing blue eyes added up to a very _'_ _yummy'_ picture in her mind.

It was at that point that Takame and Masami wandered into the clearing, the two of them having gotten in some sparring practice of their own. If they wanted to be the weapons of an active ninja, well, they had better well make sure that they were prepared for what that sort of life entailed.

At least that's what Takame believed, and she'd convinced Masami to work with her on this one.

"Is she… _drooling?"_ Masami asked.

Takame sighed. "Probably thinking about our master, you know what her objective is."

Masami grinned. "Well I don't suppose I can blame her then, Naruto looks like he could be quite delicious in a few years time, and I'm not talking about literally eating him if you know what I mean." She nudged Takame in the ribs and winked at her.

Sighing once again, Takame flicked Masami's forehead. "Believe me, I know what you mean, even if I didn't want to."

"Didn't want to?" Masami asked. "Has our little master been invading your thoughts recently?" She mock-gasped. "Oh, Takame, robbing the cradle! How could you?"

Takame growled and whacked Masami over the head. "Shut up, you know that wasn't what I was saying."

Masami pouted. "You take the fun out of everything." She groused.

"No, I just stabilise the insanity around me." Takame said, before walking forwards and whacking Tsurara over the head as well.

"You were drooling." She explained in response to the yuki-onna's glare.

Tsurara grumbled under her breath as she stirred the soup.

"What were you thinking of, Tsurara?" Masami asked her with a gleam in her eyes.

"I was in the middle of a rather pleasant fantasy." Tsurara admitted, completely without shame. "A fantasy that will one day be made a reality if I have any say in the matter."

"Oh, tell me more." Masami egged her on.

Takame ignored the two of them as they began to giggle together in between bouts of quiet discussion. It didn't take a genius to guess what they were talking about and she wanted no part of that, thank you very much. She was a weapon, fighting was her forte, and her essence sang for conflict, _not_ the foibles of 'romance'.

She waited patiently however, until she saw Hinoe appear from further into the forest, Naruto, Shin, and Kurama following closely behind. As always, Benio was in butterfly form on the blonde's head…

Takame had to wonder just how long Benio was going to keep that up. It was getting to the point that she sometimes forgot the butterfly youkai was there, and in her head she'd already begun to form one 'folder' for Naruto and Benio combined, because the two were almost never separated for any length of time.

"Practising your archery again?" Takame, the first to notice their arrival, asked.

"Yeah, I like doing it and it's something useful as well." Naruto replied.

"To each their own." Takame shrugged. "Just so long as you don't focus on one skill to the exclusion of all else you should be fine."

"You beat me into the ground once per day, you _know_ I have more than one skill." Naruto dryly responded.

"I know your hand to hand sucks badly." Takame smirked at Naruto, making him grumble.

"I'm getting better." He groused.

"Slowly." Takame shot back. "Taijutsu just doesn't seem to be your thing, you're already better at using my claws or Masami's chain."

"It just means I need to try harder." Naruto affirmed. "Taijutsu is just too much of a core aspect of fighting to ignore, no matter how bad I am at it."

"You'll get better at it with practice." Takame reassured him. "Maybe you just haven't found a sty-"

"NARUTO!" Tsurara called out.

"So she finally noticed you, took her long enough." Takame commented.

Naruto laughed, before turning to the yuki-onna. "Hey, Tsurara, I heard you did the cooking today."

"I did, I hope it's good as I don't have much experience in the way of cooking." Tsurara said, before glomping onto his side. She was pleased to note that he was having less and less of a reaction to her cold body the more she did this, almost as if he was building up a resistance.

"It looks pretty good from here." Naruto told her, and by that he meant he couldn't see anything immediately wrong with it. He'd become okay at cooking himself since he started living in the forest, and he knew what to look out for with simple stuff. "I guess we'll just have to taste it and see for ourselves just how good it is."

"I'll get some bowls and spoons out." Hinoe offered.

"I'll get the bread for dunking then." Naruto added.

The two of them fell into step with each other as they went to get what they'd said they would. Naruto was silently thinking about how useful learning to shape-shift had been. While there was a few shopkeepers who didn't like the village jinchuuriki and _did_ jack up their prices for him, it was an entirely different story when a cute girl was shopping there, a fact Naruto took ruthless advantage off when buying things he couldn't catch or grow himself, such as bread, butter, and milk.

Naruto and Hinoe shared a smile as they collected the items from Naruto's hand built cupboards – really, this 'camp' of his was well on the way to becoming a cabin, it even had a herb garden for him to grow potion reagents – before Hinoe spoke to him.

"Let's see how good your 'admirer' actually is at cooking, shall we?" She chuckled. "I _did_ keep an eye on her as I worked on that speed technique, so it should at least be edible."

"I'm sure it'll be fine." Naruto replied. "If not… you do remember how bad my first attempts at cooking were, right?"

Hinoe narrowed her eyes at him. "No matter how bad you are at cooking, food is _not_ supposed to physically attack you, Naruto. What you made was not food by any stretch of the imagination, it was an abomination."

Naruto laughed lightly. "So therefore, as Tsurara's cooking has yet to try and kill us, she's already better than I was when I started, no?"

"Being worse, in all truth, would be impossible." Hinoe huffed.

Naruto didn't reply except to grin at her, and together they returned to the rest of the group to eat together.

As it turned out, Tsurara was actually a rather decent cook, and her soup was pretty tasty.

xxxxx

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Hokage, tried once again to get his crystal ball to focus on Naruto. He'd been trying to do so for several days now, ever since some of his chakra-sensetive Anbu had reported to him that they'd sensed some of the kyuubi's chakra actually clinging to the boy. Not emanating from him or being held _within_ him, like he would expect, but clinging to him from the outside.

Concerned, Hiruzen had sent a Hyuuga Anbu to check Naruto with their byakugan. Fortunately, it still seemed as if the kyuubi was sealed up inside of the boy, or at least the vast majority of its chakra was safely sealed away still. The traces on Naruto himself were minute, especially in comparison to the nine-tail's vast reserves, and the only reason it was particularly noticeable was because of the sheer density of said chakra.

So that left Hiruzen to wonder, how did Naruto come into contact with an external source of the kyuubi's chakra? Had he found something from the kyuubi attack years ago that had, somehow, managed to absorb its chakra? That was the only real explanation he could think of, and without questioning Naruto there was little he could do to find out.

He had considered asking the boy, but if he did that then he may end up having to reveal the fact he was a jinchuuriki to Naruto, and the blonde child was far too young to be burdened with such a dark and heavy thing. Perhaps when he was older he could start training with the fox's chakra, probably with Jiraiya, who would be able to keep an eye on the seal.

Sighing as he failed once more to catch sight of Naruto in his crystal ball, the Hokage turned back to the report the Hyuuga Anbu had given him. Aside from the specifics regarding the kyuubi, there was something else there as well. Apparently there was something different about Naruto's chakra, but just what it meant, the Anbu had been unable to tell.

Groaning to himself, Hiruzen wondered just why he'd taken the hat back after he'd retired once already.

He was getting far too old to deal with this crap!


	16. Hey, Mister Turtle

AN: Okay, and here is the last little bit of day to day filler before the next mini-arc, which will once again take place completely outside Konoha. After this is over and done with, we'll then move onto Naruto's academy days, which probably won't take up too many chapters, before he becomes a genin! Yes, for those that noticed it, there _is_ some quincy influence here and there with Naruto, which is cool, I am making him into an archer after all, so the whole 'spirit archer' thing fits really well, no?

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 16 – Hey, Mister Turtle

Akiko slowly meandered towards Naruto's home, and it was a home now. Over the past two years, it had been slowly built up from a rough camp, to a more permanent camping place, to an actual home. For goodness sake, he even had a vegetable garden behind the cabin he and some of the youkai had built, and that wasn't counting the smaller 'herb' garden where he grew stuff for his potions.

The biggest change, at least from Akiko's point of view, was the seal etched underneath the house, making every youkai within the house and those close by visible to humans. Not that such a thing meant anything to anyone except Akiko herself, being the only human to visit, with Naruto being able to see them regardless.

Knocking on the large double doors – one of the signs this home was built with more than just humans in mind – Akiko waited. She heard a call of 'coming!' from within… followed shortly by a thud, a pained exclamation, and the cabin shuddering.

One of the doors opened, revealing a seven year old Naruto, rubbing at the bridge of his nose, alongside a knocked over coat rack.

"Hey, Akiko-sensei, come on in." Naruto cheerfully greeted her, even if his words were slightly muffled by him rubbing his face still.

"Are you still practising your hirenkyaku whenever you can?" She asked in response, stepping in the door. "What's wrong with walking to the front door?"

"The more I practise it, the better I'll get at it." Naruto replied. "If I use it more often, I'll get better at it quicker, see?"

"If you say so, Naruto." She sighed. "The sight of you crashing into things is still not a particularly comforting one though."

"I can use it well enough in open spaces." Naruto told her. "Not all fights are going to happen in large fields though, and I don't know of _any_ fights that happen in mid-air."

Akiko twitched at that, remembering the first time she'd seen Naruto use that movement technique of his to stand on thin air, and the fright she'd had when he tried to move and then crashed head first into a tree, before falling into the kappas' lake.

"Yes, Naruto, because the Elemental Nations _need_ ninja to take fights into the air as well, where they can rain down destructive techniques on the innocent from above." She huffed, rolling her eyes as Naruto looked a little sheepish at that. "Just be careful, alright? Don't go too high until you have proper control over the technique."

"I won't." Naruto reassured her. "I'm not _that_ stupid."

"Sometimes I wonder." Akiko grumbled under her breath. For all Naruto appeared mature at times, and was quite well read as well, he did come up with some of the most ridiculous ideas ever too. She doubted she would ever forget the time Naruto had tried making a seal that would make plants grow quicker – it was meant for fruit and vegetables – especially when said seal had caused them to come to life and try and eat people. The sight of a fire-breathing miniature kyuubi, Naruto using his fire arrows, and several youkai hacking said living plants to pieces would stay with her forever.

Naruto went to lead Akiko to the front room of his cabin, but paused and turned around. It was only a moment later that one of Naruto's falcon shikigami climbed through a cat-flap that was put there for them, and then flew up to land on the blonde's shoulder, presenting him with the two letters it carried.

Akiko looked on in silent interest as Naruto opened the two letters and read through them. She knew he was in contact with other people around the continent, mostly other jinchuuriki though, and she was wondering who these letters in particular were from.

Naruto, having noticed her curiosity chose to tell her about them.

"They're from Yugito and B in Kumo." He said. "Yugito is complaining about things mostly, the weather, guys trying to 'charm' her and failing miserably, and how many missions she's been doing lately. She likes the money, but she wants to have a bit of a vacation apparently. B, on the other hand, seems a bit frustrated at how few missions he gets, how his brother coddles him too much, and how he's failed another genin team."

"The sort of thing just about every kunoichi and shinobi has, I'd imagine." Akiko commented. "Do they never talk about anything more… personal? I mean, you've been exchanging letters for quite a while now. I'd have thought that would build up at least some level of trust."

"We're from opposing villages." Naruto shrugged. "And while I'm not particularly close to Konoha in general, they are both rather loyal to their village. They _do_ write about other things occasionally, but all of us make sure that we don't write anything that's at all compromising about our own villages."

"So distant friends then?" Akiko asked.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Naruto answered her. "I have photos of them, as you can see, but we're not exactly 'best buddies' or anything." The blonde indicated some photos on one wall, which had the relevant photos hanging there, along with some others, like Han, Roshi, and even one of Fu, a girl only a few years older than Naruto. Beside them were some paintings done of youkai that Naruto knew, as a camera was unable to capture their image.

Akiko smiled at those photos, happy that her favourite student had some human friends, even if they weren't exactly local. While she had nothing against youkai, she hoped that the letters he sent and received would sort of 'balance' out the influence the youkai had on him, making him more normal.

"Hey, Kurama!" Naruto called out. "Do you have anything you want to say to the Nibi or Hachibi? I'm writing letters to their hosts right now."

" **You ask me this every time you send one of your bloody letters!** " The Kyuubi's voice yelled back from another room. " **I** _ **don't**_ **want to say anything at all to them! If I wanted to talk to my damned siblings, I'd do it myself!** "

"How would you even do that? They're all sealed, just like you technically are." Naruto groused, wandering into the room Kurama's voice was coming from, finding the miniature fox laid on a large cushion and enjoying some sunlight coming through the window.

" **We were all once one being, the Juubi, or did you forget that, idiot?** " The fox growled. " **We're all still connected because of** **th** **at, so for the last time, if I wanted to talk to them, I could do it any time I wanted to, whether any of us were sealed up or not.** "

"That… sounds amazingly useful." Naruto commented, his mind already trying to work out how that connection functioned. "Is it some sort of resonance, or is there some part of you that's acting like a radio? Is it something that happened on it's own, or was it something the sage added when he made you nine?"

" **Stop it with the questions!** " The fox snarled. " **Make me a larger body and I'll let you study the damn thing! Just go away and let me nap in peace!** "

Naruto gave the fox a confused look, before leaning forwards and sniffing lightly. "You're… drunk? No, you're hungover. What, did you go to that party at the sake spring last night?"

" **So what if I did? It's my life, I can do whatever I want with it.** " Kurama snapped at him.

"Geez, calm down, I was only saying." Naruto huffed. "As for a larger body… I have a few ideas, but they're mostly untested. We can see if one of them works if you want, I really want to see what that communication technique is like."

" **Yes! By the sage, yes!** " The kyuubi shouted, leaping to its feet. " **If I can get something better than this little blob with limbs for a body, then I want it now!** "

"Sure, I'll be back in a moment." Naruto agreed, leaving the kyuubi with Akiko.

" **What is it, fleshbag?** " The kyuubi asked, seeing Akiko staring at him.

"I'm just… struck by how _human_ you are." Akiko said. "You're nothing like I'd have imagined you to be. Sure, you're pretty bloodthirsty and quite sadistic too, but… you have wants and desires, just like anyone else."

" **Thank you for stating the obvious.** " Kurama drawled. " **What did you think before? Did you really expect something that exists purely for destruction to actually exist, especially with how long we've been around.** " The fox snorted. " **Simpleton.** "

"Gee, thanks." Akiko grumbled. "See what I get for trying to be nice."

" **I am not nice, human, and your race has done far too much to me for me to forgive any single one of you just like 'that'.** " The fox shot back.

"You like Naruto well enough." She retorted.

" **The blonde is actively trying to make things better for me, and that's on top of him having the power to deny me this freedom. I'm not fool enough to piss him off when he could make things so much worse for me.** " The kyuubi explained, speaking like one would to a particularly slow five year old.

"There's no need to be so grumpy with me in particular." Akiko growled. "It's not like there's anything I _can_ do to help you at all!"

" **And there's no reason for me to be nice to you either.** " Kurama replied. " **This right now is me being more polite than I would be to ninety nine percent of your race,** **so if anything, you're actually getting the 'nice' me right now.** "

Akiko muttered under her breath about how that still wasn't very nice, but further conversation was put on pause when Naruto came back into the room with several things in his hands.

"Right, these are all the things that I think might work." He said, before pulling out his notebook and three particular items from the pile. "These are what I think are most likely to work out of everything I'm trying. Want me to explain each of them and my theories?"

" **As long as it works, I don't care.** " Kurama stated. " **However, I will admit to some curiosity this time.** "

"Right, let's start with this one." Naruto pulled out a talisman, this one absolutely _covered_ in symbols. "As you can see, this is a standard talisman, albeit one that's a tad more complicated than the ones I usually use. You see, where yin chakra, or reiryoku, can follow simple symbols to a complex result, yang chakra, or ki, is far less 'intelligent', and must be told _exactly_ what it's supposed to do."

" **Hence the numerous symbols.** " Kurama guessed. " **They define exactly what form the chakra should take.** "

"Correct." Naruto acknowledged. "Also, given it's _ki_ rather than reiryoku, each symbol on here is one I've had to create myself, pretty much from scratch. It's far from perfect, and I'm sure there's far more efficient ways of doing this, but it _should_ work."

" **So that's option number one, what are the other two?** " Kurama asked. " **I imagine they rely on something other than just a multitude of symbols I don't understand?** "

"The next idea I had is this one." The blonde answered, revealing it. "This one has the actual shape of the talisman play a role in defining the form you should take if I use your power to activate it, meaning I need far less symbols as I don't need to create an entire wire-frame model of a body with them."

" **Is that… an origami fox?** " Kurama asked in disbelief. " **Your answer to 'improving a talisman'… is making it more 'artistic'?** "

"Hey, it's a legitimate idea!" Naruto defended himself. "Besides, I learned a lot doing that. I've found that I can strengthen stuff with my own ki, making paper shuriken and kunai legitimate weapons, especially as they seem to 'cut' through the air, making their lack of weight less of a problem."

Kurama didn't quite know how to respond to that, and chose to press on. " **Option three would be? Please don't say it's some sort of ritual dance or something, because if you do I might just chose to kill myself to save myself the humiliation.** "

Naruto snorted. "No, there's no dancing. If anything, it's an extension of the last idea." He pulled out a wooden model of a fox with the same symbols etched into it. "Rather than paper, this is wooden, and so can handle more power than an ordinary talisman can. That's the third idea."

" **Do you have a spare talisman for my current form, in case none of these work?** " Kurama asked, getting a nod from Naruto. " **Then I choose all of them, let's see what works best.** "

"Okay then, let's try the complex talisman first." Naruto said.

Kurama cancelled his possession of the talisman he'd inhabited since he and Naruto first met and returned to the seal. Immediately after that, Naruto grabbed his chakra and forced it through his arm and into the talisman, holding back tears of pain as the corrosive chakra attacked his body on the way out.

" **This is weird.** " Kurama commented, once he'd taken form. " **I'm made up of a lot of flat surfaces.** "

It was true as well. Kurama was now the size of a regular fox, and pretty much the right shape as well. However, he wasn't smooth curves at all, his body was made up of a large number of polygons that interlocked with each other to form a rather angular body. It felt _really_ weird when he tried moving around, and it wasn't the most comfortable thing ever.

" **Okay, so I'm a better size. I don't like this though, it's far too stiff and rigid.** " He looked at Naruto, who was now wiping down his chakra-burned hand with a soothing ointment to calm down Kurama's dense chakra. " **Are you up for the next one?** " He asked, showing a small amount of care for the injury he'd caused.

"Yeah, but the third one will be done with my left hand." Naruto answered the biju. "I don't want to damage myself too badly."

"Just be careful, Naruto." Akiko cautioned him. "It won't make much of a difference if you wait a few days between each experiment."

"I'll be fine, I'm already healing, and the ointment is doing its job." He said, and it was too. He absolutely loved some of the potions he could make at times, they were just so awesome!

" **Right, I'll just dismiss myself then.** " Kurama said, doing just that.

"Okay, attempt two… let's go with the wooden statue." Naruto said, picking up the mentioned statue, channelling Kurama's ki into it.

This time, Kurama took the form of a fox that was almost twice as tall at the shoulder compared to a regular one. However, he ran into issues almost straight away. While the wood could handle more of his power than paper could, it seemed to 'store' it more than let it flow, and while that worked for Naruto's shiki-weapons, he actively channelled his power to use his techniques – both the bijudama he had before and the new things he'd learned under Hinoe – and so this was a no go as well.

" **This form is more physically powerful, but my ki isn't flowing properly. It's like it's… clotting? That's probably as accurately as I can describe it, and I'd rather be miniature again than stay like this.** " Kurama told them.

Naruto sighed in disappointment. "So the first one is too stiff and this one isn't working either."

"Cheer up, Naruto, the origami fox might work." Akiko smiled at the boy, earning her a smile in return. "Besides, you're designing this from the ground upwards, of course there's going to be mistakes. I'd say you're doing really well for someone so young, _really_ well."

"I had help." Naruto blushed embarrassedly. "Hinoe and the others had a load of ideas, it's not all me."

" **If this stupid 'origami' idea works, I'll roll onto my back and ask for belly rubs.** " Kurama expressed his opinion of the idea in his usual sarcastic way.

"Well, let's see if it works then." Naruto said, sending a small glare at the fox.

Returning to the seal again, Kurama prepared to possess another bit of paper. However, as he manifested in that burrow in Naruto's mindscape again, he thought for a moment that he saw something impossible. For just a flash, he could have sworn he saw his previous container and her husband, asleep.

' _ **Actually, maybe they're the other two consciousnesses that they found in the seal.'**_ Kurama thought to himself, finding it rather amusing that their son was helping the 'prisoner' out of his cell while the 'guards' slept.

He only had a moment to think about that, as he was almost instantly pulled out of the seal again, this time possessing the origami fox talisman.

Kurama found himself to be a shade taller than a regular fox in this form, and actually looked like one instead of a roughly cut model. He also found that his joints moved fluidly and he couldn't feel any problems in how his ki flowed around inside his body. All in all, it was the best result so far.

He froze at that, before glaring at Naruto and Akiko.

" **I _will_ bite you if you try and get me to roll over.** " He growled as menacingly as he could.

Akiko did give him an amused look, a slight vicious gleam in her eyes. "You _did_ say that if it worked that you would roll over and ask for belly rubs." She chimed in.

" **I hate you more than all but two other humans right now.** " Kurama snarled at the woman, leaving Naruto confused about what was going on between them.

xxxxx

" **Okay, here is where our minds meet.** " Kurama told Naruto, gesturing around at the massive, empty space. " **I can call to any of my siblings and they can answer me if they want to, understand?** "

Naruto looked up at the kyuubi, currently full-sized as this was inside his mind, and then around at the empty space.

"Could you call someone for me, please?" He asked politely.

" **Who?** " Kurama bluntly asked.

"Either the ichibi, sanbi, or rokubi." Naruto said. "They're the only ones whose jinchuuriki I'm not in contact with."

" **Shukaku, the one-tailed raccoon, is a childish little shit, and he only respects those who can overpower him. I wouldn't advise trying to speak to him until you are _far_ stronger than you currently are. As for Isobu, the three-tailed turtle, and Saiken, the six-tailed slug… they're both more even tempered than Shukaku.** " Kurama told him.

"Could you call for Isobu, please?" Naruto asked. "I know he's sealed inside of the current mizukage, and I wonder if he knows why the man's so against bloodlines."

" **ISOBU!** " Kurama yelled loudly in answer.

Naruto, before Isobu arrived, mentally conjured up a mask to wear so that the biju couldn't tell Yagura about him if the turtle was on the mizukage's side in what was happening.

" **Kurama, is that you?** " Isobu asked, making an appearance in this shared 'mindscape'.

" **Yeah, it's me.** " The fox replied bluntly.

" **Why did you call me here? It's not like you to bother with the rest of us**." The one-eyed turtle asked curiously.

" **My container wanted to speak to you.** " Kurama said, nudging Naruto forward with a paw.

" **Hello there, Kurama's host, my name is Isobu. It's a pleasure to meet you.** " The biju politely introduced itself.

"Ah, hello." Naruto was caught off guard by how nice this biju seemed to be. The mask he'd created faded as his concentration broke. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, it's nice to meet you too."

" **Much more polite than I'd expect one of Kurama's hosts to be, I'd have thought he'd taint them with his aggression.** " The turtle stated.

"Honestly, you're more polite than I was expecting too. I thought you'd be more like this guy here." Naruto responded.

Isobu laughed lightly at that, though his loud voice still managed to shake Naruto's eardrums because of how large the biju was. " **Ah, as much as they'll both deny it, Kurama and Shukaku are the most alike of us nine.** "

" **I am nothing like that pathetic raccoon!** " Kurama growled at Isobu, who pretty much ignored the outburst.

" **Myself, Saiken, and Chomei, who you would now as the rokubi and nanabi respectively, are considered the friendliest of the biju.** " Isobu told Naruto. " **I must ask though, why did you get Kurama to call for me?** "

"Well, a couple of things really." Naruto admitted. "I was curious, I wanted to meet you, and… well, I want to know why Yagura is so set on eliminating so many clans."

Isobu seemed quite happy with the first two points before becoming depressed at that last bit. " **Poor Yagura. He had such dreams, and now he'll never live for any of them.** " The turtle… was it crying? " **You see, Naruto, he wasn't always like that, but one day he was ambushed by a masked man.** "

" **A masked man?** " Kurama asked, jolting upwards. " **Did he wear an orange mask with a spiral on it?** "

" **He did! Do you know who he is?** " Isobu looked to Kurama, a small amount of hope in his eye.

" **He claimed to be Madara Uchiha, but he wasn't.** " Kurama answered his fellow biju. " **Oh, he's certainly from that cursed clan, but Madara himself he was not. I'm guessing this story of yours involves that damned red eye of his?** "

" **Yes, the sharingan!** " Isobu exclaimed. " **He pretty much destroyed Yagura's mind and took control of him. Right now, my vessel is just a brain dead meat puppet for the false Madara.** "

"That sucks." Naruto frowned. "And I can't think of anything I can do to help either."

" **Life sucks, brat, the sooner you learn that the softer the blows will be.** " Kurama huffed.

Naruto didn't reply immediately, his attention shifting between Isobu, Kurama, and the shared mindscape they were currently in, before repeating. He looked at Isobu, thought about what he really was, and then at Kurama, what he was, and then at the mindscape once more, thinking about what it represented.

Kurama could see the cogs turning in Naruto's head. " **I know that look, Naruto, what stupid idea has lodged itself in your skull this time?** "

Isobu, in curiosity, looked at the little human.

"Well..." Naruto started. "The biju, if we get right down to it, are essentially masses of self-replicating chakra with an intelligent will of their own, right?"

" **That's right.** " Kurama hesitantly replied, wary of where this was going.

"And this space we're currently in links all of you together, like a bridge that spans nine islands?" He continued.

" **You could call it that, I suppose.** " Isobu agreed.

"So, do you think it's at all possible for the biju themselves to 'cross' that bridge?" Naruto asked, earning himself a stunned silence from the two biju. "I know it sounds really stupid, but is there any reason you _couldn't_ do it?"

" **I...** " Isobu tried to say something." **I don't know.** "

" **That is probably your most stupid idea yet, kid.** " Kurama told Naruto. " **Still, I don't see why it wouldn't work… though there might be problems with it.** "

" **I'd probably have to leave all of my chakra behind and start producing it from nothing.** " Isobu added. " **But that's not much of a problem for a biju, we produce chakra simply by existing.** "

"Do… do you want to try it?" Naruto asked. "I mean, you said Yagura was brain dead, so it's not like you could break him out of a genjutsu and everything would be okay, there's… nothing there for you to save."

" **I think… yes, this is probably for the best. If Kurama of all people can vouch for you then there _must_ be something good about you.** " Isobu stated.

" **He's acceptable.** " Kurama grudgingly admitted. " **Probably the best vessel I could ask for, not that there was much competition or anything.** "

" **Then I agree as well.** " Isobu said, before looking directly at Naruto. " **Naruto Uzumaki, I, Isobu the Sanbi, do request sanctuary from you. Will you give it to me?** "

"I will." Naruto said, wishing he could think of something more official sounding given Isobu's sudden turn of formal speech.

" **Then let's see if this actually works.** " Isobu nodded, some excitement leaking into his voice.

" **You know what this means, don't you, kid?** " Kurama glanced at Naruto.

"What?" Naruto wondered.

" **You're going to have to try and find a way for your talismans to work for regular chakra so Isobu can have a body outside of the seal as well.** " Kurama told him.

Naruto deflated slightly, already imagining how much work that was going to be.

"Bugger!"

xxxxx

In actual fact, it only took Naruto four days to make Isobu a talisman for a body. Granted, Isobu was small enough to sit on Naruto's head, but he didn't seem to particularly mind that fact, and he had some fun swimming about in the kappas' lake, reminiscing about when he was first created by the sage and was much smaller than he was when fully grown.

Naruto, in order to create Isobu's talisman, had combined what he knew about reiryoku seals and ki seals together into one. It didn't work very well, as his talismans tried to treat the two parts of a single energy as separate entities, but he was proud of the fact he managed to get it to work at all.

However, that made Naruto wonder just what the hell seals were. He knew for a fact the symbol-based talismans he made, even the one for Isobu, was absolutely nothing like regular, human fuinjutsu, so how did they work then? There was some sort of significance to the seals, but what, and why did particular shapes make various energies do specific things?

Deciding to shelve that line of thought for now, especially as it only confused him, Naruto made a decision to not learn any new skills until he was a genin. He'd improve what he had, but learning anything new would only slow down his current development, and he'd end up a jack of all trades, master of none.

Actually, he might as well get on with hi-

" **Damn it, Isobu, stop doing that!** " Kurama yelled, running past Naruto, breathing fire back over his shoulder.

" **Stop being so damn lazy then, 'big brother'.** " Isobu followed after him, breathing a stream of water to counteract the fire.

" **That sounds freaking weird when you say it, stop! You are not a schoolgirl, you are a giant monster turtle!** "

Actually, he might as well get on with putting a stop to this fight.

xxxxx

In a remote cave, far from where Naruto currently was, a group of village boys were playing a game of 'chicken'. You see, the cave they were in was supposed to be haunted by an evil monster from long ago, but it was sealed away in a large rock by an exorcist – a group that had faded into myth and legend themselves.

However, regardless of it being sealed away, the cave was supposed to retain the monster's evil presence and would curse anyone who stayed the night in the cave. These boys, teenagers, were going to prove they weren't scared, and planned on staying the night.

Maybe if they showed they were brave then one of the pretty girls they knew might go out with them. If they stayed, all the other boys who were too scared to stay the night would know that they were real men, and they weren't scared of anything, especially not some silly story!

They'd brought blankets to sleep on, and some camp food too, as well as a lantern each.

Looking around the cave, they found the rock the evil monster was supposed to be sealed into, it was pretty obvious what with the strange rope wrapped around it, and they all laughed about how monsters couldn't be beaten with a bit of rope, conveniently forgetting what ninjas were capable of.

They all decided to go to sleep around the large rock, and after telling scary stories around a lantern and eating sandwiches, they did just that. However, one of the boys was a bit of a restless sleeper, and he tossed and he turned, rolling this way and that trying to get comfortable.

He even rolled towards the rock at one point, and came into contact with the rope.

The rope that was old and eaten away by time and… something else.

A rope that fell apart quite easily at the rough treatment of the boy.

A rope that really _was_ holding something back.

A rope that, now broken, had let something free.


	17. A Mission

AN: Another new chapter, and the first of this little 'mini-arc'. I'm not sure how many chapters it will take, maybe two or three more, but I hope to do a lot with this, as it's something I've never really done before, and I'm pulling inspiration from all over the place. I don't know whether Horror/Mystery is something I can write well, so with this chapter and the ones following it, please give me some good feedback, please? Also, I've now got a job, so expect updates to be less frequent.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 17 – A Mission

Yugito looked over her mission report as she ate her breakfast. From what she could gather there had been a series of strange attacks that had some sort of connection to local superstition. The village leader had then collected some funds together and sent a mission request to their nearest ninja village, Kumo.

She hadn't really chosen this mission specifically, instead simply swiping it from the available B ranks in the office. She was supposed to do so many missions of each rank per month, so this was nothing new to her. She always read the mission description over once she'd grabbed the scroll, and she was doing so now while enjoying a plateful of sashimi.

"Something interesting?" A voice asked her, making her almost jump out of her skin in surprise.

Looking up, Yugito found a young, blonde boy sat opposite her, giving her a smile. Her eyes widened as she realised who the hell he was.

"Naruto?!" She whisper-yelled. "How the hell did you get here?"

"I'm a kid, people don't look twice at me." Naruto shrugged.

"Not what I meant!" She told him. "How the hell did you get all the way from Fire Country to Lightning without anyone in your village noticing you're missing?" Internally, she admitted that Naruto's point was relevant as well. Genin generally weren't any younger than ten, so a seven year old could slip by unnoticed.

"I only left yesterday afternoon." Naruto told her. "I've been in Kumo for a while as well." He grinned at her. "I can travel pretty quickly you know, so I have the entire weekend free."

"I don't suppose you'd tell me how?" She asked.

Naruto shook his head. "That's my secret to keep."

"Well I can't exactly show you the sights, I have a mission to get to. Maybe Killer B can show you around." Yugito told him, getting an unimpressed look in response.

"B's far too visible, I saw him earlier." Naruto told her. "You are more solitary, and even being near you like this has earned me some looks now and then."

"You are, what, thirteen yeas my junior?" Yugito sighed. "Of course we're going to get odd looks."

"Fair point." Naruto admitted. "Given how little time I spend with people, I guess I might be noticing more than I otherwise would."

Yugito's curiosity was roused when she heard him stumble over the word 'people', like he'd intended to say something else and corrected himself at the last moment. However, she couldn't think about how to ask him about that without making it obvious she was digging for something.

"So if you've seen B already, what are you going to do now, just go home?" She asked.

"Who knows?" Naruto replied. "Maybe I'll follow you on your mission, what is it?"

Yugito considered answering, before realising that there was nothing particularly critical or secret about it, and so decided to tell him. "Just an investigation, there's been a few strange deaths at a village down the bottom of the mountain that the locals want help with looking into."

"So there's no reason I couldn't tag along?" He asked.

"If you die then it's your own damn fault." She bluntly answered. "Just make sure the gate guards don't see you leaving with me."

"I'll probably reach the village before you do." Naruto smirked slightly her.

Yugito rolled her eyes in response. "If you really did get here from around Konoha in less than half a day then you should be able to, especially as I've got official channels to go through before I leave the village."

"See you there then." Naruto grinned, before wandering out of the door.

"Sure." Yugito murmured to his retreating back. "Friend."

xxxxx

Despite keeping an eye out for him, Yugito didn't see Naruto at all when she went home and packed a bag for a two week mission – she didn't expect it to take that long, but it always pays to be prepared – or when she went to register her mission with the missions office.

She didn't see him when she left the village through the gates and started heading down the mountains. She had thought he might have been waiting for her out of sight of the gate, but no, it seemed he had either gone straight to the village – though how he'd know which one it was as she hadn't told him – or he was much better at going unseen than she had expected.

She made it all the way to the bottom of the mountain, going at shinobi speeds, without encountering anyone other than merchants, general travellers, and fellow Kumo ninjas. In fact she had even started to wonder if her earlier meeting with Naruto had been some sort of delusion brought about by too many late nights.

" **It wasn't a delusion, Yugito, he really was there.** " A voice echoed inside her mind.

" **Nibi? You've been quiet for a while, nothing to say?** " She responded.

" **That boy… he confuses me. I sensed something that I've never heard of before with him, and something that I know should be impossible.** " The two-tailed cat replied.

"Is he a threat?" Yugito immediately asked.

" **He has the potential to be incredibly powerful, if that is what you mean.** " The biju said offhandedly. " **However, if you're asking if he has any malicious intentions, I doubt it. I may not be as good as my eldest sibling at sensing these things, but he appears genuinely friendly to me.** "

Yugito didn't respond to that, merely acknowledging the point and slipping into a professional mindset now that she was on a mission.

She and her biju had an odd relationship, even compared to other jinchuuriki and their sealed beasts. There was a certain level of respect there, definitely, but there was also no particular friendship either. Yugito was a Kumo kunoichi, and as far as she knew, that was what she would always be. For her, the Nibi was a source of strength that could help her when she needed it.

On Matatabi's part, the cat had long realised that there wasn't a great deal of choice available to it. After Hashirama Senju had handed them out like party favours, they'd been stuck with their respective villages, to be transferred from host to host when the previous one became useless or died. Yugito at least wasn't a particularly insulting host like some Matatabi had had in the past, and so their relationship remained fairly cordial, with Yugito taking Matatabi's chakra only when she really needed it, and the biju occasionally offering a comment or two on Yugito's life.

However, Matatabi was currently rather confused. When she had first seen Naruto, she could tell straight away that he was a jinchuuriki – and on top of that his chakra carried the 'flavour' of Kurama quite strongly as well – but there had been something else there as well, two things actually. One of those things was hint of another biju, Isobu if she read it right, but the more confusing thing was that the biju 'flavour' to Naruto's chakra seemed… dormant, like the three and nine tails weren't actually there.

Fading to the back of Yugito's mindscape, Matatabi prepared to do something that she had never really thought she'd use much, especially not to contact one of her more grouchy siblings. Appearing in that empty space that mentally connected all nine biju, Matatabi roared out Kurama's name.

" **What do you want, pussy-cat?** " Kurama irritably asked once he arrived.

" **Your jinchuuriki, Naruto, confuses me. I can sense you within him, but it's almost like you're not there, and I swear I can feel Isobu's presence as well.** " The look in Matatabi's eyes demanded an explanation.

" **Most of my chakra** _ **is**_ **inside the blonde brat, but he's created a technique that allows me some small amount of freedom outside of his seal.** " Kurama smirked at the black and blue feline. " **Jealous, are we?** "

" **Yes, I am.** " Matatabi readily admitted. " **And what of Isobu, I thought he was sealed inside of someone in Water Country?** "

" **He** _ **was**_ **sealed in them.** " Kurama answered her. " **However, we've found that, because of this shared space we biju have, he could jump across from one host to another, so long as he left all of his chakra behind. Given that his old host had been turned into a mindless meat puppet and Naruto made him a small body, it wasn't a difficult decision to make.** "

" **We can transfer ourselves between our current hosts?** " Matatabi asked in surprise.

" **Yes, so if you run into trouble too big for you and your vessel to handle, you could make a move before you're forced to spend years pulling yourself together.** " Kurama told her.

" **Noted, but I don't think there's much out there that Yugito can't handle when using my chakra, and I have no particular reason to leave her right now. Perhaps if my next vessel is an annoying and uncultured ingrate.** " Matatabi replied.

" **By the way, just how** _ **did**_ **your vessel get from Konoha to Kumo so quickly?** " Matatabi asked. " **That's rather respectable for a human, and all of the techniques I can think of for moving that fast aren't the sort of thing taught to children.** "

" **He has a rather impressive movement technique, however that's not how he got there so fast.** " Kurama reluctantly complimented the hirenkyaku technique. " **He rode on the back of a youkai that he bribed with human treats.** "

" **A youkai?** " Matatabi wondered.

" **Yes, a youkai, now go away, I was enjoying some fresh meat when you called me here.** " Kurama growled, before vanishing from the mindscape.

" **Ever the predator, brother.** " Matatabi sighed, following suit and returning to Yugito.

xxxxx

Yugito eventually came across Naruto when she was almost out of the mountains, only a couple of hours away from her target destination in fact. The blonde wasn't stood at the side of the road, nor was he just lying around waiting, he appeared to be training or something. Whatever it was he was doing apparently had something to do with the small turtle sat on his head that he was talking to.

"So water manipulation is all about giving it at least a little free reign? Directing it rather than forcing it? Forcing it works when working with pressurised water though, I guess that makes sense, but for a more 'natural' flowing water technique, you need to think like water." Naruto was muttering to himself. "Crushing force, an implacable tide that will flow around an obstacle and into any small gap presented to it."

"Naruto." Yugito called out, interrupting the blonde's constant murmuring.

"Hey, Yugito." Naruto greeted her. "I realised that I didn't know where I was supposed to be going once I'd gotten out of the village, so I asked about rumours and stuff and ended up in the generally right area."

"What rumours have you heard?" Yugito asked seriously. After all, anything that she learned might help her complete this investigation sooner.

"There's been a number of deaths, though exactly how many I don't know. Some rumours say an entire village has been killed, but I think that's exaggeration. At present, I'd say that there's been a minimum of a dozen deaths, but probably two or three times that many." He told her. "All of the bodies share some unusual traits, one of the notable ones being that each body has lost some organs, though if the killer has any preference for a 'trophy', I don't know what it is. The other little titbit I heard was that an empty skin was always found next to the most recent victim, and there's already stories spreading about a demon that wears the skins of its kills to trick people and make them their next meal."

"Demons?" Yugito asked sceptically.

Naruto shrugged. "While not all of the stories agree, most of them say that several young boys spent the night in a 'cursed' cave and disturbed the sleep of the monster, accidentally unsealing it and unleashing it on the village."

"So there might be something that was previously sealed and gotten loose." Yugito muttered, knowing that there _were_ some places around the nations where things had been sealed away, Demon Country having many such places, though not _all_ of them. "I don't suppose you would happen to be a seal master, would you? I'm not."

"I get by well enough." Naruto answered vaguely.

Yugito, however, made a mental note of the younger boy's admission. It was the only indicator she had of what skills he had. Well, that and whatever method he was using to keep up with her pace. While she was doing nothing more than actively channelling chakra through her body – her legs more specifically – there was a blue flickering light around his feet that indicated the use of some sort of technique he was using.

"If something needs sealing away, can you do it?" Yugito asked bluntly.

"It depends on what needs sealing." Naruto protested. "As long as it's nothing _too_ powerful, then yes I can do it. However, if it is something strong, I can only seal it if it's been beaten down first. I've never really focused on sealing things away, you know, I've been more interested in active seals."

"So you're capable enough to look after yourself?" She pressed.

"Capable enough, yes." Naruto clarified without divulging what exactly his skill level was.

"That'll have to be enough then." Yugito said, before falling silent, most of her attention on getting to the village she was to investigate, though some of her focus was on the speed technique Naruto was using and trying to figure out how it worked.

xxxxx

Upon arriving at the village, while Yugito went to speak to the head of the village, Naruto split off from her and attempted to locate the cave the rumours mentioned. That shouldn't be too difficult to do, there could only be so many caves nearby, and there were ways to narrow down the search even further.

However, what Naruto first noticed when he started looking was the stench that seemed to permeate the area. It was like some sort of unholy combination of putrid, rotten flesh and the sickly sweet smell of honey. Strangely though, none of the villagers seemed to be reacting to the smell, and Naruto turned to his youkai companions to see if they had any explanation.

"This smell… this is definitely a demon of some kind." Benio told him. "That overly sweet smell is telling me that much, and the scent of dead flesh tells us a little more."

"So there really is a 'flesh' demon or something around here?" Naruto asked, trying not to gag as he did so.

"Yes, but how the demon uses flesh, I couldn't say." Benio offered as much as she could. "Does it gain power by eating it? Does it animate corpses? Does it wear the skin as a disguise? There's so many ways one can use flesh, I just hope that we don't find it being used for a curse."

Tsurara frowned. "Yes, flesh curses can be some of the worst against humans." She added her opinion. "I remember a time, about three or four centuries back, where a rather vengeful bitch cast a curse on a family that caused their penis to start rotting when they turned seventeen, with it eventually falling off."

Naruto shivered in disgust at that mental image, and turned to Takame and Masami to see if they had anything to add, which they didn't. The blonde boy began to think that leaving Madara behind to guzzle down whatever sweets he could beg, or buy with the money Naruto had left him, had not been the best idea.

"Let's go find this cave, see if that can tell us anything about what was supposedly sealed here." Naruto suggested. "Isobu, can you try and stay in contact with Matatabi, please? Tell her to contact us if Yugito runs into something she doesn't understand."

" **I will, Naruto.** " Isobu agreed. " **You just be careful as well. You might know more about demons and how to handle them, but an expert you are not.** "

"I know, Isobu, and thank you for your concern." Naruto thanked the turtle.

" **Well it's not like Kurama is going to show any concern, so** **I** **might as well** **do so** **.** " The sanbi added.

"We both know that Kurama's pretty jaded, and with good reason too. Maybe one day he will care, but for now I'll more than make do with your worrying, thank you." Naruto grinned. "Now, let's see what caves we can find."

With that, Naruto activated his hirenkyaku, flickering over towards the cliff face and the caves at the bottom of the mountain. The first was too shallow to really have anything in there, and the second didn't have what they were looking for in it, but the third one he checked had the small shrine, boulder, and sealing rope within it.

Naruto grimaced at seeing the broken rope, or more specifically how low quality it was. Given that it had held for as long as it had though, it had more than done the job it was designed for. Still, he did what he came to do and examined everything there to see what he could find.

"This rope has been corroded by the demon's power, so we're dealing with something of at least second level, maybe third. That's not _too_ much trouble as long as we get to it soon enough, but if it has been feeding as voraciously as the rumours suggest, there's no telling how much power it's stored up already." Naruto reported to the youkai.

"If we're right in that it's using skins as a disguise, though, that will cost it at least a little of its power." Benio said. "Not a great deal, but it is something at least, and if we can figure out who the most recent victim is, we may possibly be able to work out who it's currently pretending to be."

"It'd be easier if we could track it by scent, but this smell is everywhere." Naruto complained. "At least with it we can tell the demon is somewhere within the village, or at least nearby. Though with me and Yugito here, it might decide to move on before it's discovered, so we'll have to keep an eye on that."

"At least you found something out." Masami comforted Naruto. "Let's see what Yugito has found and see if we can match up information."

xxxxx

Yugito was currently talking with the village head, an old woman who looked like a shrivelled up prune. She had an attitude to match it as well, certain that Yugito wouldn't be able to do anything about the 'demon', and she was just wasting her time.

She did give Yugito the information she asked for though, a list of names, locations, and estimated times of death for all of those that had died. She was given access to the outbuilding all of the corpses were being kept in as well, and she was heading over to said building to go over the cadavers when Naruto caught up with her.

"Did you find anything?" Yugito asked, not really expecting much and actually surprised when Naruto responded with an affirmative.

"We're definitely dealing with a demon here, and it's a flesh beast." He told her. "It was a shoddy sealing job from what I can tell, either done by someone with only a minimum of skill and knowledge, or done hastily. I can confirm that it's still somewhere near the village, if not within one of the buildings right now."

"A flesh beast?" Yugito murmured. "Explain."

"A demon that uses flesh as a medium for its abilities. Whether that be devouring it for strength, animating it, using it as a catalyst for curses, or something else, I can't tell." Naruto repeated what he'd learned barely a few minutes ago. "Usually, they're not particularly strong as far as demons go, but with enough of a supply of flesh, they can become really nasty."

Yugito didn't question the source of his knowledge, and instead asked for the best way to deal with such creatures.

"Fire's good, burn away their supply of flesh." Naruto said, with Benio telling him what little she knew. "Physical damage, such as cuts or bruises, won't do a lot though, so water and wind are both out as well. Lightning can work a bit, but it has to be powerful lightning, and trapping them in earth is only slowing down the inevitable."

"I can do fire." Yugito told him. "That and lightning _are_ my specialities after all."

"Just make sure you make it as hot as you can." Naruto cautioned. "The demon will resist damage somewhat." Naruto then looked skywards, eyeing up several grey clouds. "Let's also hope that it doesn't rain too soon, that will only make things _harder_."

"If it rains, it rains." Yugito said. "Now let's take a look at the bodies, see if there's anything they can tell us."

Naruto nodded, and followed his fellow blonde into what appeared to be a small barn for hay storage. Once inside, however, they found it empty of any hay bales, and instead filled with thirty-four corpses, all laid side by side on the ground.

Yugito looked at the younger boy, impressed when he managed to quickly get over his unease at the sight of so many dead bodies. He only paused for a moment, taking three deep breaths, before setting himself straight and focusing on the injuries they had. Most fresh genin, in Yugito's experience, would have at least turned green, if not thrown up, at the sight, so Naruto was obviously made of sterner stuff than most.

"Are they in order at all?" Naruto asked.

"Apparently, or at least that's what the village head told me." Yugito replied, watching as Naruto examined the corpses in an attempt to see any sort of pattern in which organs or limbs they lost. "Shall we start with the obvious stuff, first?"

"Sure." Naruto agreed. "The skin?"

"Yes, the skin." Yugito agreed. "As we can see, each body has been, for lack of a better word, 'peeled' quite completely. However, there's no cuts on the skins to show how it was removed, almost like it was taken off all at once, but there's too little stretching for this to have happened any 'normal' way."

"The bodies are too complete and large for the skins to have been 'emptied' bit by bit too." Naruto agreed. "All this means though is that our target can essentially 'teleport' a skin off someone's body. There's not even any cuts in the skin to indicate what it was that killed them, no claw or teeth marks, nothing."

"Their jaws have been dislocated though, and there is some damage to their tongues." Yugito countered. "Like something crawled into their mouths."

"Yeah, like a parasite or something." Naruto nodded. "If that's so, it means they were likely attacked from the front, lending credence to the idea that the demon wears skins as a disguise. After all, with a monster on the loose, a village like this will close ranks and rely on each other, won't they?"

"Not always." Yugito disagreed. "Sometimes panic can cause people to start blaming and suspecting anyone and everyone, but I don't think that's the case here. There's an established legend of an age old demon for them to blame, so gathering together _does_ make some sense in this case."

"Right, and with them looking outwards, the problem is likely coming from their friendly neighbour." Naruto grimaced. "Of course, to properly integrate with the community, it's possible that the demon gets at least a little knowledge from the ones it kills, so it can act more like them."

"That's assuming it's actually hiding that way." Yugito said. "For all we know, it could be hiding out as someone's pet dog, or a wild animal that comes into the village to feed every now and then."

"True." Naruto admitted. "I might be jumping to conclusions a bit."

"Theories and ideas are good, but don't become blind to other possibilities." Yugito advised him.

"Right." Naruto made a mental note of her words, in case he ever had an investigative mission in the future.

"Now, let's look at what organs are missing from the bodies." Yugito told the younger blonde, and the two got to it. Naruto started from one end, Yugito the other, and when they met in the middle, they totalled up all of the missing pieces.

As it turned out, the most common missing organs were the heart, lungs, and genitalia. The number of missing legs was also quite a bit higher than the number of missing arms, with only six of them missing their heads. There were a few other missing organs here and there, mostly from the digestive system, though a few eyes and tongues were also missing.

"Okay, I can't make any sense about what organs have been taken." Naruto admitted.

Yugito couldn't either. "If there were bloodlines amongst them, taking their reproductive organs would make sense, but these are just ordinary civilians."

"That's from a ninja's perspective." Naruto said. "Why would demons care about bloodlines? No, they were taken for another reason, I just can't think of what that might be."

Yugito sighed. "For now, the best thing we can do is ask a few questions of those who are close to the victims, friends, family, and neighbours, before we start patrolling the village to keep an eye on things."

"You handle that then." Naruto suggested. "I'm not officially part of this mission after all, and I _do_ have certain advantages when it comes to searching for demons."

Yugito gave him a curious look, remembering what he'd told her earlier, and how he'd said that the 'flesh beast' was still somewhere around the village. Unless she was much mistaken, Naruto was a sensor of some type, perhaps even with a speciality in detecting non-humans or something. If that was the case, it really would make sense for him to patrol while she did other things.

"If you find yourself in trouble, flare your chakra high and I'll come and assist you." She told him. "I will do the same if I encounter our target, two on one is always better than one on one."

"Be careful." Naruto warned her. "As far as we know, the flesh beast could be posing as anyone or anything."

"Understood." Yugito said, before leaving to speak with the relatives of the deceased.

Frowning, Naruto also left the barn, but paused as he considered where he should start his search. The demon would need somewhere to store its spare flesh, assuming it didn't just eat it straight away, and it was common for beings of all stripes – human, youkai, and demon – to have a 'lair' of some description, somewhere they could retreat to in safety.

The question was, where would he find it?

Caves were too obvious, though they would still need to be checked, and cellars, as much as they would make sense, would also be far from perfect. The best place that Naruto could think of for a lair would be an outbuilding that no one paid much attention to, but also wouldn't be somewhere a person couldn't go freely. A crypt may also be somewhere to check out, though that was only if the local graveyard had one, which he doubted.

For now though, Naruto began to wander around the village. He remained as unseen as he could – which wasn't difficult when he was only hiding from civilians – and kept his senses sharp to try and find the demon. The scent he associated with this specific demon wasn't any stronger or weaker around the barn, but maybe he'd get a face full of it somewhere else in the village.

With this thought he mind, he began his patrol, accompanied by his youkai companions and Isobu.

xxxxx

Yugito sighed tiredly to herself as she finished speaking to the sixth family so far. Things were getting rather repetitive from her point of view. She'd offer her condolences for their loss, ask about any strange behaviour they might have exhibited, get an answer along the lines of 'they were fine until they died', and then she'd ask about where they'd been, who they'd talked to, and anything they think might be relevant, before noting down their answers.

So far she had bugger all to show for all of the effort she'd put into this mission, and she hoped Naruto had had more success than she did. If he could use his senses to narrow down the list of suspects and/or locations they needed to search, then she'd be a happy ninja.

She wasn't holding out much hope there though. With the speed Naruto had displayed earlier, matching her even – for a ninja – pace, he could have crossed the village several times over already. If he hadn't found anything yet, she doubted he would find anything any time soon.

For now though, she had plenty of people to ask the same set of questions over and over again.

'Joy'.

xxxxx

Hunger. Need more. So Hungry. So Long. Feel Power. Feel Lots Of Power. Need To Eat. Too Much Power? No. Human Power. Chakra Power. Not Demon Power. Feed? No. Not Yet. Need To Prepare. Need More Flesh. Smell Power. Smell Spirits. They Can See. They Can Hurt.

Need To Be Careful.

Need To Be Complete.

Need To Be Whole.


	18. Old Lair

AN: Okay, this was a difficult chapter to write, not least of which is because I've been typing it up in my breaks at work. Note to all of you students who don't have jobs yet, school and work are very different things, and regardless of whether you have a physically active job or desk work, both can tire you out quite easily. Anyway, moving on, I'm quite surprised how many of you were wondering about Yugito's attitude last chapter, as I thought I'd made it quite obvious without outright stating it. She wants information. Didn't you notice how she carefully took note of what skills Naruto had? His movement technique? His fuinjutsu? Even his knowledge about demons is something she can add to the mental profile she has on him. This is not fanon Yugito who can fall in love with someone half her age, who can easily become a Konoha kunoichi. This is Yugito who is loyal to Kumo, whether that be through conditioning or personal belief is up to the writer, but she's not about to change her allegiance just like that, and she _knows_ that Shinobi Wars happen often enough that she might well end up fighting Naruto herself. Anyway, I've gone on long enough, please enjoy the chapter.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 18 – Old Lair

Kurama yawned widely, his tail twitching in the light breeze as he laid on the roof of Naruto's cabin. He paused momentarily as he thought he felt something shift in the wind, but then the moment passed and he laid down again. It was probably just the brat getting into some sort of strange trouble, as always happened when he was away from the village that was supposed to be his home.

It was none of Kurama's concern though, he was content to simply while away the time, relaxing and enjoying himself. If Naruto needed biju help, Isobu could do it in Kurama's place, the three-tailed turtle being a lot more conscientious than the nine-tailed fox was.

An added benefit of Isobu being away was that the damn turtle couldn't nag Kurama about being lazy, and because of how similar their power levels were when possessing 'talismans', he couldn't simply overpower his weaker sibling and show that stubborn reptile who was boss.

" **What do you want, shrine spirit?** " Kurama opened one eye to glare at Tsuyukami, who now stood between the sun and the fox.

"Nothing much." Tsuyukami replied. "I just have a few questions I'd like answered, if you don't mind."

" **Ask your questions then, and I may answer them if I feel like it.** " Kurama sighed.

"Thank you." Tsuyukami politely responded. "First off, the kappa have unearthed some rumours about a group named 'Akatsuki' that have apparently shown a lot of interest in you and your siblings. Do you have any idea, aside from being used as weapons, that someone would want the biju?"

" **Aside from making a force of jinchuuriki soldiers? I can only think of a few things that would need all of us to accomplish.** " Kurama told him. " **The most basic of them being fusing us all together to once again create the juubi. Obviously, that is something I do** _ **not**_ **want, and if humans actually had brains then they wouldn't want it either.** **The ten tails actually _is_ a mindless beast of destruction, much how Konoha believes me to be.**

" **Another thing we biju could be used for would be as a power source of sorts. We** _ **are**_ **sources of self-replenishing chakra after all, so using us as a rather powerful battery would allow someone to do some rather insane things. Aside from those two things… well, there is a story the sage told us before his death...** "

"A story?" Tsuyukami prompted.

" **The sage's mother, Kaguya… Apparently, there was a time before chakra, and a noble girl wished to stop all of the wars that raged across the continent. This girl climbed a forbidden tree, and ate the single fruit that grew on this tree,** **gaining** **the power of chakra. With this power, she stopped all of the fighting, and she was revered for her power. However, this power supposedly drove her insane, and when her two sons were born with chakra of their own, she only grew crazier.** " Kurama paused, remembering when he had first been told this story.

" **Apparently, the woman tried to take the chakra back, but her two sons didn't want that, and so they fought their mother. Kaguya, who had descended into insanity was transformed into the juubi… well, she summoned it, created it, or something – that part was never very clear – and she fought her sons. They won, however, and sealed her away inside the moon, or created the moon from the juubi's corpse – another part that was never made particularly clear either – and that is the only other thing I can think of that we might be used for. In bringing us together, someone** _ **might**_ **be able to revive the sealed Kaguya, someone who was only matched and defeated by** _ **both**_ **of her sons at once, the sage of six paths and his brother.** " Kurama finished his tale.

"Thank you for that interesting story, Kurama." Tsuyukami said. "It at least gives us some ideas about why this 'Akatsuki' group may want you and your siblings."

" **Why can't those kappa just find out and tell you themselves?** " Kurama asked, mildly curious.

"Well, from what we've heard, Akatsuki is based in Rain Country." Tsuyukami began. "Unfortunately, Rain Country is right in the middle of several major territories, and whenever there's a war, they suffer quite a bit. That suffering, anger, and resentment builds up and gives birth to some of the most aggressive and destructive of youkai. There's also several demons that make their home near there, making it somewhere that most 'normal' youkai tend to avoid."

" **How unfortunate for you. However, I don't see why you're bothering me with this. It's hardly uncommon for villages to want power, and jinchuuriki** _ **are**_ **seen as easy ways of getting power quickly. To properly extract me, they'd need to catch Naruto, and even I have to admit that he is rather fast for someone of his age and experience.** " Kurama grudgingly admitted.

"The rumours are that Akatsuki is made completely out of S rank ninjas." Tsuyukami said. "As much as I am fond of Naruto, I can easily say that Naruto is not yet ready to deal with even regular ninja, much less someone powerful enough to be a kage."

" **True.** " Kurama agreed. " **As fast as he is with that technique he likes, Naruto would have trouble with an intelligent genin that can work out his limitations, particularly with his abysmal skill in hand to hand combat.** "

That was unfortunately true. Because of how hirenkyaku worked, it could not be used to enhance taijutsu aside from dodging. If Naruto tried to punch someone when using his technique, rather than have the speed enhance his blow, his hand would instead take the brunt of the hit, likely reducing it to little more than pulped meat. As it was, his arrows were currently limited by how fast they moved through the air, and while that speed was increasing, a sufficiently fast and skilled genin could dodge them, albeit with serious effort and focus.

"Naruto doesn't yet have the arm strength to use a bow heavy enough to release arrows fast enough." Tsuyukami sighed. "Given how 'well' his experiments with using pure ki are going too… well, at least Hinoe's quick treatment stopped him losing his arm."

Even Kurama had to wince at that, remembering the explosion of flesh and blood from the time Naruto used a small amount of ki to enhance his own muscles. While the theory was solid, and if he actually got it to work right he'd have strength enough to make Tsunade Senju look pathetic, he had two major obstacles at present.

The first was his body, he was after all a child, and he was far from fully developed. When he was older, his physical body should be able to handle more power than his current one did. That was one of the reasons why even 'genius' prodigies weren't a match for most seasoned veterans, their younger bodies simply couldn't handle large amounts of energy, and those with great enough reserves tended to suffer from 'burnout'.

The second problem was, well, Naruto was using _pure_ ki. Without a reiryoku buffer between him and the very direct energy, the yang chakra was applying all of its power to his child body, which resulted in the previously mentioned incident. Also, Naruto's ability to manipulate ki was nowhere near as good as his proficiency with reiryoku, resulting in greater difficulties and frustration.

It was because of this that Naruto had a preference for ranged weaponry and techniques. While he did persevere in his spars with Takame, and he did try his hardest, close combat was likely something Naruto would never be particularly good at. However, with his hirenkyaku technique, he had the mobility to disengage from melee quickly and easily, allowing him to get the range necessary to effectively use his better skills.

He was playing to his strengths while trying to overcome his weaknesses, which was rather admirable and sensible really.

Kurama sighed. " **If it comes to it, Naruto can rely on biju chakra to enhance himself. Our energy is so dense and potent that even a small amount of it will enhance his physical abilities quite a bit, regardless of how skilled he is at actually controlling our power.** "

"Your chakra is also so potent and corrosive that it causes Naruto's body to start breaking down whenever he uses it, or did you forget how the skin on his palm was flayed off and his flesh hung in tattered strips when he first started making those talisman bodies for you to possess?" Tsuyukami pointed out.

" **The more he uses it, the easier it will be for him to handle. It's like building up a resistance, small and frequent doses that are increased as and when necessary.** " Kurama shrugged. " **If he's ever going to make me an actually good body, he's going to have to need to handle** _ **far**_ **more of my chakra than he can right now.** "

"You do realise that it will likely be years, maybe even more than a decade, before Naruto reaches that point, don't you?" Tsuyukami asked.

Kurama snorted. " **Yes, I realise that.** **That damn turtle being around both helps and hinders his progress at the same time. On one hand, he gets more practice as he's got two biju to make bodies for, which is on top of Isobu's chakra also stretching his pathways even larger. On the other hand though, Isobu's chakra being inside of him makes his reserves grow larger and makes it harder for him to control it.** "

Tsuyukami agreed with that point, however he had noticed something else. "Is it just me, or is Naruto finding it easier to control Isobu's chakra than he is yours? I know that he has trouble with using 'chakra' seals, more than he does with 'ki' seals, but it seems to be a lot smoother and more gentle than when he's working with your energy."

" **Well Isobu** _ **is**_ **weaker than me, both the capacity and density of his chakra is less than mine.** " Kurama smirked in his superiority. " **However, my chakra also channels my rage and hatred, whereas Isobu is more submissive, as I'm sure you've noticed. The emotions in my chakra does make it more dangerous and corrosive than it otherwise would be.** "

"Have you ever thought of trying meditation and calming down?" Tsuyukami asked.

" **Fuck off!** " Kurama growled at him, though a tiny smile did pull at the corners of his mouth.

xxxxx

Naruto decided to take another look at the cave where the demon had initially been sealed. It really stuck out to his senses, as it carried strongest concentration of the demon's scent he could detect in the area. That was only logical, as that was where its energy had been leaking out of its prison for goodness knows how many centuries before it had eventually escaped.

Unfortunately, there was very little that the seal could tell him about the demon. It was a very generic seal, not particularly strong but effective against a wide variety of entities. The rope was low quality, as he'd noticed before, and the talismans were as generic as the seal itself.

Honestly, Naruto didn't know what he'd been hoping to find here. The demon's name, maybe? If he had that, there were a few things he could do to make finding and sealing it easier, but it wasn't like he was very experienced with demons. In fact, this was the first time he'd ever come across one, even if his lessons with Hinoe had at least covered the basics.

In _theory_ , Naruto could summon a demon himself, but that was something he'd like to avoid. Also in theory, he knew how to seal away a demon, or at least a weak one, and he was going over the process and requirements for the minor ceremony in his head, making it as clear as he could, for when it became necessary to seal it.

Naruto paused in his search, finding something he hadn't noticed before.

"Hey, is it just me, or does the back of this cave seem strangely flat to you guys too?" Naruto asked the youkai who were carefully watching his back for him.

"It does a little." Benio murmured, looking at it. "It's not perfect, but it looks like one of your human earth techniques was used to seal up the back of the cave for some reason." She agreed with Naruto. While it did look relatively natural, the way the back wall fitted against the ceiling, sides, and cave floor seemed a little too… abrupt to be normal.

Carefully, Naruto began to scratch at the wall with a small dagger from his belt. However, rather than earth, this wall actually was made of stone, and so he needed something with a bit more power behind it if he was to cut through this false wall.

Casting a lightning javelin into his hand, Naruto stabbed it into the stone. The naturally penetrative properties of all lightning techniques allowed it to slide into it with only a minimum of resistance. He then began to cut a small hole in the fake wall.

Once that was done, and a hole large enough for him to look through had been opened up, Naruto then cast a small orb of light which he sent through the hole before brightening it up, so he could see everything that was in the next cave chamber.

A sharp intake of breath from the blonde made Masami curious enough to take a peek herself, and she frowned heavily at what she saw through the hole. It looked like a crypt, with shelves dug into the walls, and the remains of what were obviously humans could be seen on said shelves.

Quickly, once he'd gotten over his surprise, Naruto opened the hole up and made it into a doorway which he quickly stepped through. He then approached the remains that he could see and began examining them. While some were little more than bones, others looked like they'd been dried out and preserved, while yet more appeared to have been mummified by ash.

"What… are all of these doing here, behind the sealing shrine?" Naruto wondered aloud.

"Sacrifices." Tsurara murmured, acting much more serious than she usually did. "I've seen places like this in Iron Country before, where humans try and appease youkai, demons, or gods by giving them what they want in return for leaving them alone, or in return for some favour or other."

Takame and Masami nodded in agreement, before the latter added in what she knew. "I haven't seen them myself, but I've heard myths and legends about them. As far as I knew though, that kind of fell out of favour at least two hundred years ago."

Benio frowned. "I've never heard of anything like this happening in the forests of Fire Country." She said. "Then again, the land there is far more fertile and forgiving than the northern snow plains or these mountains. I imagine desperate humans did what they felt they needed to do in order to survive."

Naruto sniffed the air, but found only a very faint residual scent of the demon they were looking for. "Well, as much as this is a near perfect place for it, this isn't the current lair of the flesh beast. Do you think we'll find anything useful further in?" He gestured towards a passageway he could see at the opposite side of the chamber.

"Possibly." Takame answered him. "It's probable that this was a previous lair, and its likely to have hoarded things it found or took here. There _could_ be some clues as to what sort of flesh beast we're dealing with further in, or even what sort of methods this one employs."

Glancing around at all of the preserved corpses. "Well, given how many bodies here are relatively intact, I'll take a guess and say that it doesn't eat them for strength." His eyes landed on a pile of bones that looked distinctly gnawed on. "Well, at least not primarily."

Silently, the small group of five crept further into the creepy place. Naruto went first, his lightning javelin still in hand and his orb of light bobbing along in front of him. Behind him, Benio and Tsurara walked side by side, both keeping their eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary.

Bringing up the back, Takame and Masami also had a light orb, courtesy of Naruto, letting them see everything. They kept a close eye out behind them because, as desolate as this place seemed to be, it was most definitely unnerving, and the group couldn't shake the feeling of something watching them, or more accurately, 'many' somethings."

This feeling only got stronger as they went deeper and deeper into the cave, and came across more and more bodies. However, what _really_ creeped them out was how the corpses were… modified.

Some of them were ordinary, nothing special about them, but there were others. Cadavers with extra arms sewn on at the shoulders, armpits, or even their sides. Barely preserved carcasses with extra legs, two heads, and bones protruding from them in all sorts of twisted ways, the expressions on their faces showing nothing but agony and pain.

They eventually found the deepest part of the cave, and when Naruto took a step inside, he jerked back. Looking down, he saw some sort of strange 'carpet' in this particular chamber. Crouching down, and bringing his light orb with him, Naruto found that the ground was covered in some sort of thick, fleshy membrane.

Benio's hand fell on Naruto's shoulder, and she pulled him upright before pointing him towards the other side of the relatively small chamber.

There, on some sort crude table, were several objects.

Standing on the membrane, Naruto approached the pile and examined them closely. There was a set of stone tablets, some form of strange writing on them that he couldn't understand. There was a crude lance made out of some kind of bone, which was also etched in writing that Naruto couldn't read.

There were pendants shaped into all sorts of things, none of which he recognised, and several other miscellaneous items, such as old-fashioned combs and what might possibly be coins of some description. What _really_ caught Naruto's attention though was something etched into a stone tablet, something that looked rather like a map.

On it, he could see a land mass that looked vaguely like the Elemental Nations, but that wasn't all. There were other lands around it, ones that Naruto didn't remember from what he'd read in some geography books. Unfortunately, the map was quite obviously not to scale, and the writing that was between the landmasses wasn't in a language Naruto could understand, which frustrated him to no end.

Naruto's dream was to explore. Whether that be delving into the depths of ancient ruins, or travelling to other lands that were currently unknown, he didn't want to be stuck in a single village, occasionally leaving it for a mission. As much as Naruto knew that he had little choice about being a ninja – being a jinchuuriki and all – he wanted a great deal more than that, he wanted true freedom, to be able to go anywhere and do whatever he wanted to do.

If he did that though, he'd be labelled a missing nin, and he'd be hunted down. If there were other places he could go though, places beyond the Elemental Nations… well, perhaps when he was older and more powerful he might decide to try and find these places.

"Have you found something interesting?" Benio asked quietly, looking over Naruto's shoulder.

"Maybe." He murmured. "Do you know anything about lands beyond the Elemental Nations?"

"Not really." She answered him. "If there are places like that, then they're far away, beyond the range of human ships at the very least."

Naruto sighed, before looking at the other things piled in front of him. "What should we do with all of this stuff?" He questioned himself.

Tsurara was the one that answered him though. "We should hide it, or at least take it out of reach of humans. Some of these things are heavily cursed, and I don't want to think of the damage they could do in the wrong hands."

"You can tell what they can do?" Naruto asked. He could tell that there was _something_ strange about it all, but nothing more than that.

"I can tell you that their effects will most likely be unpleasant." Tsurara responded. "I'm sure you can feel that vile sensation coming from them, and demons aren't exactly known for their love of the cute and cuddly, unless they are tormenting and destroying said things of course."

Naruto sighed again. "I really shouldn't have opened this place up." He grumbled. "Now though… how am I supposed to get all of this stuff back home? It's too much for me to fit in my bag, and I can't just carry it all back to Konoha."

"Use your shikigami, idiot." Benio flicked the side of his head. "Your little birds might be too small, but your wolf shiki should be strong and fast enough to get this all back to your place in a reasonable amount of time."

"It's probably for the best." Takame agreed. "Maybe when we get back, Hinoe could try and work out what this all does, but I don't think they should be left lying around for just anyone to get hold of."

"Let's at least get it out of these caves first." Naruto suggested. "Once outside I'll be able to strap it all to my wolves, assuming that I have enough rope of course."

Reaching out, Naruto picked up the lance and set it on his shoulder, but as he did so, a thud from behind made him spin around, along with the youkai stood with him. Not seeing anything immediately, they all stretched their senses as best they could, and in doing so heard a strange shuffling noise.

A moment later, shambling around the corner, came something that resembled a human.

It resembled a human so much because it was one, or at least a corpse of one.

Remembering how many cadavers they'd walked past to get as deep into the cave system as they had, Naruto had only one thing to say.

"Well, fuck!"

xxxxx

Isobu, who had separated from Naruto, began to investigate in his own way. Finding the village's water supply, which was a well fed by an underground river, he dived in. You could tell a lot about somewhere by the water that they drank, and Isobu was in tune with the element enough that he could draw even more information from it.

He could feel the 'flow' as it were, and everything that was in it. He could tell how pure the water was, whether there were any traces of pollutants or contamination, how constant the supply was, whether there were times of drought or flooding, and could even get an idea for their diet and farming produce.

However, that was not what Isobu was currently looking for. What he was searching for was any signs of demon taint. It was a rather sneaky, and unfortunately common, tactic employed by demons and humans alike. When a location relied on a specific source of water, affecting that could have a massive impact on the people that drank it.

Fortunately, this flesh beast did not seem to have done anything to the underground river. Perhaps it didn't know a way to use it for its own purposes, or perhaps it thought that doing so was entirely too obvious and traceable. Whichever it was, Isobu was happy at least that they wouldn't need to go through all the effort that purging the river would require.

Once he'd climbed out of the well, Isobu then moved on to his next task.

It didn't take him long to get to the fields that grew the village's crops, and he once again began to search for a demonic taint there. Unfortunately, his senses weren't perfectly clear, as there was at least a small amount of taint hovering over the whole village, like a miasma or thin fog.

This ambient taint, while not an immediate problem, _could_ cause problems if it began affecting the village's food, making them more susceptible to the demon and its ways. That just would not do, and fortunately there actually _was_ something that Isobu could do about it.

Being careful to keep it as minimal as possible, Isobu began to emit a small amount of chakra that then began to 'layer' itself over the plants, like a faint barrier from the demonic taint. While not the best solution ever, it would stop food supply from getting 'infected', and as an added bonus, the villagers might end up with ever so slightly better chakra development than the average civilian because of Isobu's chakra.

He couldn't do this too much though, otherwise he'd leave traces of himself too obvious to miss, and Isobu really didn't want people questioning what his chakra was doing in Lightning Country when he was _supposed_ to be sealed inside Yagura back in Kiri. Naruto, being the obvious outside element, would come under suspicion then, and that was the last thing that Isobu wanted.

Still, he did what he could, and his chakra only had to protect the crops long enough for the demonic taint to fade. That would take at least a week following the demon being removed from the area, or even sealed away once again, so Isobu tried to cover the plants with two weeks worth of chakra, an utterly unremarkable quantity for even the Ichibi.

He spent several hours doing that, and ensuring that no humans saw him as well. While the jinchuuriki girl, Yugito, had seen him, she hadn't recognised him as the Sanbi, and he doubted Matatabi could be bothered to tell her container about his identity, no matter how curious she was herself. Matatabi was lazy like that sometimes, like the feline form she wore.

Once done there, Isobu began to slowly make his way around the village, seeing if he could narrow down wherever the demon was staying. Unfortunately, with the taint in the air spread about as it was, he doubted he'd be able to do much, but then again he might get lucky.

He paused when he felt something off coming from the shrine where the demon had initially been sealed, and the connection he shared with his current host flared with shock, confusion, and a little fear. It seemed like Naruto had gotten himself into trouble.

xxxxx

Yugito was patrolling around the village, having spoken with everyone that was 'involved' in the investigation she was conducting. While she did give her current task the attention it required, a part of her mind was also going over everything she knew about one Naruto Uzumaki.

As a loyal Kumo ninja, she knew that she may well have to fight against Naruto one day, and it was even fairly likely. Given how frequently the ninja villages had fought, even in the time since they'd been founded – which was less than a century – there was probably going to be another war within a decade or two, maybe three if they were lucky.

No matter how little she may _want_ to fight him, she still would though. With this in mind, she mulled over the skills he'd mentioned or shown. First off, Fuinjutsu, the art of sealing. Being an Uzumaki, a clan renowned for their skill in that area, that wasn't much of a surprise. Secondly, high speed movement. While he was only seven years old, he had matched her speed when she was going at the average ninja travelling speed, albeit with the use of some sort of technique rather than skill. Third, some form of sensor skill, though the limits of that was something she was currently unaware of.

That was just a sample of what he could do though. He had proven that he could sneak into another hidden village if he so chose, like when he'd met up with her _inside_ of Kumo, and how he'd been able to slip away just as easily afterwards. That was something noteworthy on its own, even if he claimed that 'no one noticed a little kid'.

She'd have to see what other secrets and skills she could either work out or get him talking about, as while she did see the young child as something of a friend, despite the age gap between them, she was realistic enough to know that she and he could easily be called on to fight, and even kill, one another.

As unpleasant as that sounded, that was how the world worked. It was one of the reasons that relationships between ninja of different villages rarely, if ever, worked out. It was also one of the reasons that most said 'true peace' could never be established, the distrust between ninja villages, even allied ones, was just too great for any peace to last.

Even the current peace was more of a ceasefire until the next generation had been born and raised, ready to fight once again.

Unnoticed by Yugito, the demonic taint around the village grew a little thicker, muffling her mind and encouraging her negative thoughts, all the while leaving her unable to sense Naruto's flaring chakra signature as he tried to get her attention.


	19. Abomination Beast

AN: So it seems now that I'm working that I can only really get one chapter out a week, and only of this length. Honestly, that's a bit disappointing, as I really wanted to get something done for my other two stories. Still, I refuse to abandon anything I've written, and eventually they will be complete, I'll just have to get back to them at some point in the future. I hope you enjoy this chapter, as this is the only story I have plenty of inspiration for right now, and please leave a review for me at the end. I am somewhat disappointed in the fight scene, as much as I acknowledge that they are something I not very good at, so any ideas for improvement are very welcome. Oh! A couple of days ago I found a story that started with a similar concept to mine, a Shaman King / Naruto crossover called Naruto the Shinobi Shaman of Konoha. I thought that was pretty cool!

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 19 – Abomination Beast

Naruto threw himself to the ground and rolled backwards as one of the walking corpses swung at him with some sort of strange hybrid of axe and scythe. Tsurara then stepped forward and froze it solid, before Masami shattered it with her weighted chain.

Getting instantly to his feet, Naruto cast a force blast down the tunnel, forcing the undead to either brace themselves or get launched backwards. He then retreated to stand beside Takame and Benio, both of whom were pretty much useless in this particular battle.

When the corpses had 'woken up' and attacked them, the first thing that Naruto had tried had been taking their heads off. It was the sort of thing that worked in stories, but it seemed that reality was a different matter. Even when they cut their limbs off, they kept crawling towards the group of youkai and one human.

The only way they'd stop coming was if they were literally incapable of doing so, whether that was because they'd been cut into small enough pieces as to be rendered harmless, frozen solid, or burnt to a crisp. Being underground limited their options though, as Naruto couldn't use fire arrows unless he wanted to use up all of the breathable air down there.

Also, given that they had started in the deepest part of the cave, they didn't want their path blocked by flaming zombies.

"Does anyone remember just how many bodies were down here?" Masami asked, looking worn out and sweaty from all of the physical exertion.

"Hundreds." Benio grumbled, kind of pissed off that the illusions she'd put the effort into learning were completely useless against these dead things.

"I don't think I have the stamina to take _all_ of them on like this." Tsurara complained. "Freezing a human-sized enemy completely solid uses up a fair chunk of power."

"What else can we do but take them out as we go?" Naruto asked, forming several lightning spears and throwing them at the zombies, pinning them to the wall. He had to hold back his frustration as he fought, because aside from not using his fire arrows and orbs, the tunnels were too narrow for his shikigami to really be effective.

An idea then occurred to him. "Hold them back a moment, I'm going to try something!" He called.

Tsurara and Masami, the two currently most effective fighters stepped in front of the others, while Benio and Takame kept a close eye out for any traps that might be lying about.

Naruto, for his part, pulled out a piece of paper and quickly scribbled down several symbols before wrapping it around a loose stone and tossing it down the tunnel.

"Look out!" He yelled, before the talisman detonated in a small explosion of wind blades which shredded four zombies.

"Combat talismans, and written up so quickly?" Benio smirked. "You're learning quickly."

"It was only something simple." Naruto blushed slightly. "Nothing special, and it wasn't as effective as I'd like it to be."

"Fight now, talk later!" Takame chided them, catching an old and rusty sword on her left claw, before hooking her right into the corpses jaw and tearing its badly preserved head off. "Naruto, join with me!"

"Okay." Naruto responded, before reaching out for the tsukumogami youkai, who proceeded to visibly sink into his body. A moment later, Takame's metal claws appeared on Naruto's hands, extending up his arms and forming deadly looking clawed gauntlets. His stance shifted, and when he looked up, you could see his eyes were glowing slightly.

This was the reason why Naruto had initially gone into the seal to confront whatever it was he held, a partial possession that hybridised himself and a youkai. His massive reserves and physical body combined with a youkai's skills and natural abilities, combining together to make something truly impressive.

Charging towards the front of the group, and headlong towards the oncoming horde, Naruto lashed out with his claws, extending his reach with reiryoku and slashing apart the undead standing before him. Moving more fluidly than he normally would, he was then able to dodge one of the severed hands that reached out to grab him, turn around and cut it into pieces as well, before stomping on the head of another corpse, crushing it underfoot.

"No fair!" Tsurara yelled, pouting. "I wanted to be Naruto's first joining!"

"This is better." Naruto and Takame's double-layered voice answered her. "You and Masami can destroy these creatures working together, but myself and Naruto have trouble unless we combine our skills. I mean no insult to Benio, but her skills are only useful against humans or youkai, which these meat puppets aren't."

"You've got Naruto's reiryoku though." Masami grumbled, only to blink in surprise as she caught something that the currently possessed boy tossed her. Taking a closer look, she saw it was one of the single dose potion vials that Naruto wore at his belt.

"A fortifying draft." Naruto explained. "That should help."

Masami took the top of the vial and downed the contents in a single gulp. Her eyes then widened in surprise as she could literally _feel_ it spreading throughout her body, reinvigorating her and raising her limits slightly. She grinned widely, tossing the empty vial back to Naruto, before twirling her weighted chain around her head and tossing it down the passageway, splattering one zombie's dried brains against the wall as it smashed its head.

Masami wasn't the only one feeling refreshed and ready for another go though, Tsurara had also taken one of Naruto's potions, and she looked almost giddy with energy as she danced down the tunnel, freezing the undead solid, impaling them on conjured icicles, and binding their joints in blocks of ice.

' _Well that seems effective.'_ Takame commented to Naruto. ' _I apologise for thinking your alchemy was so useless_.'

' _You thought it was useless?'_ Naruto responded with surprise, before mentally sighing. _'Well, it is one of the most basic potions there are, I wasn't expecting particularly great results either. Let's just hope we get out of this cave before it runs out and they crash, you can only safely take so many per day.'_

With that in mind, the combined Naruto and Takame renewed their own assault, cutting apart the still moving corpses into smaller and smaller pieces. Benio, bringing up the rear, used a small dagger to take care of any little bits that were still wriggling after everyone else had passed them by.

xxxxx

Matatabi frowned inside of Yugito's seal.

Even with her senses dulled by that damned bit of fuinjutsu, she could still feel the demonic taint seeping into her container, but there wasn't much that she could do about it even if she wanted to act. If her relationship with Yugito was better, like Gyuuki and Killer B's was maybe, then she might be able to get through to the blonde girl, but alas, Matatabi and Yugito only just tolerated each other.

At least the taint wasn't doing _too_ much. Enhancing negative emotions, as much as it sounded bad, wasn't something a mind as disciplined as Yugito's would succumb to. She'd think a little worse of others, yes, and focus on negative things as well, but she could still function properly, and it would fade once this mess was taken care of.

What worried Matatabi though was the cause of the sudden increase of the taint. Either the demon had just gained a rather significant amount of power, which wasn't very likely, or an older source of demonic power had been unearthed. Perhaps an old curse catalyst had been uncovered, or victims unearthed.

What _was_ clear was that Naruto had likely found something, as who else in the vicinity was actually looking into it?

Matatabi turned thoughtful at that. Naruto, an odd boy really, especially if what Kurama had told her was accurate. He wasn't the first jinchuuriki to be relatively friendly to their biju – goodness knows that there could be someone who was _capable_ of hating Chomei's general cheerfulness – but he was the first, to her knowledge, to actually _do_ something for their prisoner.

Three host's ago, Matatabi had been sealed inside a boy that had worked hard to change his mindscape to become something relatively pleasant for her. While she could have done without him asking her if she could 'transform' using ninja techniques – and his strong belief that she would be some sort of super attractive female – she _had_ been somewhat entertained and amused by him. At least, she was before the fool got himself killed trying to fight someone who was clearly far stronger than he was, believing himself almost invincible because he was a jinchuuriki.

What Naruto had done for Isobu though, and apparently for Kurama too, actually giving them physical bodies to inhabit outside of his own... She would admit to being intrigued by that at least, and she wondered how easily just such a skill could be taught, not that she'd ask the boy to teach Yugito it. She wouldn't do that to the young child.

Her container thought loyalty was doing anything and everything asked of her, regardless of her own personal beliefs and morals. She would, if the Raikage told her to, be quite willing stab herself through the heart, and if the Raikage were that sort of man, she would be as submissive as he required her to be.

True, she _did_ have a mind of her own, her tenuous friendship with Naruto proved that much at least. However, that very basic friendship would last only so long as there were no overtly hostile moves made between Kumo and Konoha, and as Matatabi had noticed, their 'friendship' had not stopped Yugito trying to get as accurate of an idea of Naruto's skills as she could.

Honestly, that girl was rather messed up in the head, and Matatabi had neither the means nor the desire to even begin trying to 'fix' her. When it came time for Yugito to die, or for her to be transferred into another host, she would use the escape method Kurama had told her of, and that would be that.

With these thoughts in mind, Matatabi kept her silence and watched through her container's eyes as the demon problem became that slightest bit worse every minute.

xxxxx

A great gout of flame erupted out of the 'demon' cave, not that there was anyone to see it. There wasn't anyone to see the small group that stumbled out of there moments later, all of them looking exhausted, weary, and somewhat battered as well.

"I...am… so tired!" Naruto panted out. Takame slumped against him, not even having the energy to stand properly.

"You're not very well synchronised, joining like that will have taken a _lot_ out of you." Benio explained. "I'm amazed you were even capable of getting it to work at all, and to the level you had it working at was nothing to sneeze at!"

Naruto merely groaned in reply, reaching for his first aid kit and dressing his wounds. He had a lot of bruises, as while the undead they'd fought had only been marginally faster and stronger than 'trained' civilians, they most definitely had had a killer grip! You could clearly see where there hands had been when they'd grabbed him.

He had some other marks as well, like a nasty slice down his left arm, from shoulder to elbow, where a zombie had caught him off guard in one of the larger chambers. That wound was quickly cleaned and dressed with a bandage. He might heal faster than normal because of Kurama being sealed inside of him, but he was by no means immune to infection and disease.

"Next time, ask Ran to come along instead of that useless Madara." Masami complained. "At least _she_ would stick around rather than immediately go off and enjoy treats that you paid for."

"Ran wouldn't have been able to fit in those tunnels." Naruto pointed out. "And the only reason I chose Madara over Ran is because he's right there in the forest, while Ran lives all the way over at the Valley of the End. Give me some time to get faster with my Hirenkyaku and I'll start asking her for help instead, 'kay?"

"Sounds good to me." Masami grinned at Naruto and gave him a thumbs up in approval. "Just no more zombies, they're icky."

Naruto laughed. "I'll see what I can do, no promises though."

Tsurara smiled though. "Look on the bright side, those zombies would be about the same threat level as a group of bandits, right? They were harder to deal with, but much more stupid, so this could be proof that you're getting better at fighting. You're probably at least low genin, no?"

"Maybe." Naruto answered non-committally, though there was a note of pride in his voice as he spoke. "At least now the flesh beast can't call on these old corpses for help, can you imagine how much damage they could do to a civilian settlement?"

"A lot." Takame grimly answered him. "This discovery, however, also tells us just what sort of methods this particular demon uses. As is quite obvious, this particular flesh beast has a talent for merging and animating living matter. The next question is 'what are its limits?'"

Masami grimaced. "Yeah, that six-armed guy was a tough one to fight." She grumbled. "And did you see that one who had, like, five arms merged together to make one huge, muscular one? Now that was gross!"

Naruto grimaced as well. "Yeah, I noticed that one, why did you think I cut his arm off as soon as I saw him? I don't even want to think about how much it would hurt to be hit by him, and that axe he was carrying looked sharp enough to cut a boulder in two, never mind me."

Takame sighed, stretching herself out a bit. She still felt incredibly drained from that joining with Naruto, but she was already beginning to recover. She blanked out the rest of the group chatting with each other, before frowning as she felt just how much heavier the demonic taint had gotten. It had probably increased when they'd broken open the back of the demon's old lair, and speaking of that place…

"Naruto, before we head back to the village, do you want to send your shiki-wolves off with what we found in the tunnels?" She asked, interrupting Masami, who was telling Naruto about something or other. It was an entertaining and amusing story if their shared smiles were anything to go by.

"Oh, yeah!" Naruto recalled, a metaphorical exclamation mark appearing above his head as he remembered what they'd left behind. He then reached inside his jacket and pulled out a single pack of shikigami from an inside pocket. Tossing it in front of him, he soon had six pure black wolves, each the size of a large horse waiting for his instructions.

Pulling his pack off his back, Naruto took out the large sheet of waterproof canvas he used for a tent, as well as several coils of rope – you could never have too much rope! - before he ordered his shiki into the cave and told them to retrieve the items they'd left behind within.

One after the other, as they were too large to walk side by side in the tunnels, the shikigami went in and retrieved what they'd been ordered to get. When they had done that, Naruto tied it all up into a single package, tied as tightly as he could make it, which was then tied onto the back of one of the wolves.

"Now, as fast as you can, please take all of this back to my home. Do be careful not to drop or damage any of it though." Naruto commanded them. "Two wolves will be going with this one to protect it, though I'd prefer you avoid human contact completely if you can. The other three wolves… there's a demon somewhere nearby, see what you can sniff out, but stay out of sight of the villagers. Is this all understood?"

The six wolves all nodded their heads, before the one carrying the 'loot' from the cave sped off to the east, flanked by two more of the wolves. The remaining three shikigami separated and headed towards the village, seemingly blending into the shadows like true predators on the hunt, despite their great size.

"Are we heading back to the blonde girl now?" Tsurara asked.

"She's twenty, hardly a 'girl'." Naruto said. "But yes, I think we should. We've gotten some information here, and while I'm on this mission – officially or not – Yugito is kind of my teammate. I'm not going to hide anything from her that might get her hurt."

Benio gave Naruto a look, before getting his attention by placing both her hands on his shoulders and facing him head on. "Be careful, Naruto. I know you've been sending each other letters for a while now, but she has neither earned nor demonstrated any great level of trust. Don't push her away or become suspicious for no reason, but make sure you're careful, okay? You don't know Yugito well enough to drop your guard around her."

"I'll be careful." Naruto promised.

"Good, that's all I ask." Benio smirked at the blonde.

xxxxx

Power! It Came Back! But Broken. Enemy Destroying Thralls! Old Forgotten Thralls! Enemy Is Stealing Treasures! Yellow One Is Enemy! Yellow One Is A Threat! Can't Run Though. Enemy's Shadow Thralls Hunting For It. Enemy Is Great Threat!

Threat Must Be Eliminated.

xxxxx

The shiki-wolves had much better senses than a human did, much like the creatures they were based off. While they couldn't 'home in' on chakra, reiryoku, or anything like that unless they were specifically designed to do so, they _could_ track through more mundane methods, with sight, sound, and smell.

The flesh beast wasn't truly alive, and so it should smell of death, rot, and decay. All the wolves needed to do was find a living person who didn't smell fully alive. That wasn't as easy as it sounded though, especially if they had to keep out of the regular humans.

To counter this, instead of looking for something that smelled bad, they looked for what smelled normal. Rather than tracking this scent though, they memorised where it was coming from, and ignored it. In essence, instead of searching for a single positive result, they were eliminating all of the negatives, until only one remained.

One of the wolves approached the village from the south, while the other two took the east and west approach. The cave was to the north, where their creator and his youkai companions were, meaning they had the four cardinal directions covered.

Stealthily, the massive canine crept forwards, its body moving in ways something with a skeleton and defined muscle structure should not be able to, as it managed to avoid detection. It came near the first home, and quickly scented around the windows and doorways, before moving onto the next one when it found nothing out of the ordinary.

It would keep doing this, working systematically, until it was either finished or its creator gave it a new task. _That_ was what a shikigami was supposed to do, and Naruto had plenty of practise making and directing them. In fact, he'd made it a habit to spend ten minutes each night before bed making fresh shiki.

As Naruto could neatly scribble out one shiki formula every eight seconds – due to a hefty amount of practice – that meant he made roughly seventy five shikigami every night, even more when he went over his ten minutes of self-allotted time as he sometimes did.

This meant he had a _lot_ practice, and therefore his shikigami were quite high quality. This resulted in improved speed, strength, durability, and above all… _intelligence_! So, of course, the wolf noticed when one particular villager seemed to be in a bit more of a hurry than the others, as well as the way he was trying to covertly look around at everything at once.

The wolf made this human a priority, and immediately began to stalk him.

xxxxx

Can Feel Shadow Thrall. It's Behind Me! Where!? Where Is It!? Can't See It, Only Sense It! Must Get Back! Must Wake It Up. It's Not Finished. It Will Have To Do. Work As Distraction While I Escape. Must Get Away. Yellow One Too Big Of A Threat To Try And Hide.

As quickly as it could, without appearing too rushed to the humans around it, the flesh beast in its meat suit made its way, surprisingly to some, towards the centre of the village as opposed to the outskirts. Who would look in the middle of the village for a threat that they thought came from the outside after all? Who would think to look in the old storage area beneath the town hall where food had been stored before the newer granaries had been built?

It only took the flesh beast a handful of minutes to reach the middle of the village, and in that time it had sensed two more of Naruto's shiki come near, before one of them left for somewhere else. It was also unable to miss the fact that Naruto himself, the 'yellow one', had started heading in its direction as well, along with the other powerful presences it knew were about the place.

xxxxx

Yugito wasn't caught completely unaware when one of Naruto's shiki appeared right in front of her. Being a skilled jounin of Kumo meant that she wasn't some oblivious idiot. Still, there was just something about a massive wolf large enough to look down at you that made even the strongest of beings reflexively swallow.

Of course, once she'd gotten over her mild surprise at seeing the creature, and realising that it wasn't the demon she was here to deal with, interpreting what it wanted was fairly simple. It quite obviously wanted her to follow it, and when asked whether it belonged to Naruto, it nodded its head.

With that out of the way, and with the knowledge that Naruto would have come himself if there wasn't something else that required his attention, Yugito followed after the massive wolf as it led her… towards the more populated areas of the village?

Then again, more people around meant more potential victims and more hiding places as well, so it did make some sense for the demon to hide there. She really should have thought of that before now, but with all of the victims so far being found on the northern edge of the village, she'd fallen into the trap of thinking that a 'dumb beast' wouldn't leave a false trail.

She shifted her attention to the massive wolf she was following, mentally noting it down as one more of Naruto's techniques, and quite an impressive one at that. She didn't know what it was, but it was most likely some form of ninjutsu, and probably based off of a solid clone as well.

It appeared to possess a human-like intelligence, being capable of understanding her questions and responding, and making excellent use of cover and shadows to remain unnoticed by the regular people of the village. In fact, all of their attention was on the kunoichi running down the street rather than the massive black wolf that alternately ran along rooftops and behind bushes.

Yugito's attention shifted once again as she felt something akin to a genjutsu nudge at her mind. It was like a little voice in her ear whispering 'there's nothing to see here', 'turn around, you forgot about something elsewhere', and 'leave this place now'.

She could clearly see that the civilians around her were responding to this mental command, some more easily than others though. A pair of women walked by her, and she could hear then talking about how they really should check out that new shop on the southern side of the village. Soon after, a well-built man walked the same way they did, mumbling underneath his breath about how he just 'knew' he'd forgotten something, but couldn't remember exactly what.

She mentally added genjutsu to his list of skills, unaware that it was actually Benio who had cast the diversionary spell.

xxxxx

Isobu caught onto the movement around the village at the same time Naruto did. In fact, it was _because_ he was linked to the blonde that he noticed it. He picked up on Naruto's mood change when the young boy realised that his shiki had started acting in concert with one another to surround one particular area of the village, and most likely one particular individual as well.

Making his way towards where the shiki were stalking what was probably the demon – and moving much faster than people would expect a turtle to be capable of going – Isobu quickly reached a place that resembled a ghost town, mostly because there was no one on the streets and no signs of anyone being indoors either.

It was only a moment later that the turtle saw one of Naruto's shiki-wolves walking down the middle of the street, doing nothing to try and hide itself. Then again, given how deserted the place was, there didn't appear to be anyone to hide from.

With a quick blast of water, Isobu launched himself into the air and landed on the wolf's back. Not stopping or slowing down, the black beast kept going towards its destination, carrying Isobu with it. The turtle took this opportunity to go over what power he currently had in his reduced form.

He could use blasts of water, and while it wasn't of the same quantity as his full-sized form, he could still pressurise it enough to cut through steel if he needed to. Most people thought of water as doing blunt, impact damage, but nowhere was there a rule saying that water couldn't be sharp.

His coral would be pretty useless though, as while he could produce it, he needed access to more power if he was going to make it strong enough to be worth a damn in a fight. Making coral like that would also tip people off that he was more than just an ordinary 'ninja trained' turtle as well. Water was understandable, coral wasn't.

A loud noise from up ahead drew his attention and brought an end to his contemplation.

xxxxx

Naruto was closer to the disturbance than Isobu was, which let him and the others with him see exactly what was happening. The problem was… it was very hard to understand or describe just what it was he was looking at, it being too surreal to really be put into words.

Bursting up through the ground was some sort of strange… creature? That was the best description that Naruto could give it, as it seemed to be a mass of arms, legs, torsos and so on all sort of merged together. Arms and legs seemed to be wrapped together like individual muscles to form limbs themselves, and the bodies seemed haphazardly combined to make something that writhed and wriggled like some demented form of spider and slug hybrid.

"Naruto, is that the demon!?" A yell from Yugito coming from another direction made the blonde boy snap up to look at her.

"No, it's not." He called back. "I think the flesh beast did create it though, you can see the different corpses it's stitched together to make it."

"So it needs to be destroyed then?" She asked him.

"Yes, it does." Naruto agreed, before raising his hand and forming the largest fireball he could.

Flinging it at the creature, Naruto immediately used hirenkyaku to flash to another place and throw another fireball at the abomination in front of him, and then repeating his actions again and again.

It roared in pain as the fireballs sizzled against its flesh, but while they hurt the creature, they didn't do any lasting damage. It regenerated almost faster than the damage was done, and while they could keep going until its reserves were ran dry, there was no telling just how much collateral damage the thing would cause before it was brought down.

Already, simply breaking out from underground had caused some of the nearby buildings to sink slightly.

Switching to lightning javelins, Naruto began trying to pin the large beast in place so that Yugito could destroy it, hopefully with a powerful enough fire technique to stop it getting back up again. He threw his javelins at the waving tentacles of the creature, formed from the limbs of the flesh beast's dead victims, and watched as it shrieked in agony in response.

Yugito, for her part, was quite interested in what she could see. Naruto was using no hand signs to use his techniques, and he was throwing them out in rapid succession, seemingly with no thought to potential chakra exhaustion. Then again, the techniques seemed simple and not very powerful, likely meaning they didn't take much chakra to use.

She waited for an opportunity to burn the entire beast, keeping an eye on how things were going. Naruto's black wolves were tearing into it with their fangs and claws, ripping off chunks of dead flesh. The turtle was slicing off bits of the thing with highly pressurised jets of water, and Naruto himself seemed to be testing out a variety of basic techniques on the flailing beast.

He seemed to favour fire and lightning, but he'd also tossed a discus of wind at one point that she'd seen, and he'd scribbled off some sort of seal on a bit of paper before adding that to the mix, resulting in a small explosion as well.

She wasn't standing there and doing nothing herself though, even if she wasn't trying particularly hard to fight this thing. As terrifying as it no doubt looked to a civilian, it was far too slow to be a threat to her, and while its regeneration was annoying, it would be beaten down eventually.

She grimaced in disgust as a mouth opened up on its body and vomited some foul substance at her, which she dodged. The fact the regurgitated puddle began hissing and steaming as soon as it hit the ground made her quite glad that she hadn't tried to test out that attack and had dodged it instead.

Looking at all of the bits cut off, Yugito had to wonder though…

"Just how much will this keep regenerating?" She asked Naruto.

"I don't know." He replied. "The more power it has, the longer it can keep going. I'd have thought the flesh beast would have kept most of its power to itself rather than give it all to its creation though. This is more than I expected."

With that, Naruto leapt into the air, where he stopped, apparently standing on nothing. A black bow then appeared in his left hand, and an arrow of lightning appeared on the string, which he promptly loosed straight down at the creature. However, as soon as it left his bow, he drew it again and fired another arrow, and then another, and another, and another.

Yugito watched as the abomination was quickly riddled with several dozen lightning arrows, none of which looked like they'd be dissipating any time soon. With it now pinned and unable to move, Yugito jumped on top of a building as well, running through hand signs and calling out a jutsu.

When she did that, a great blaze of blue coloured fire poured out of her mouth and engulfed the abomination completely, thankfully not reaching the houses on either side of the road.

It was a morbid and unpleasant sight, the pinned creatures flesh simultaneously burning away and regenerating, neither one seemingly being able to overpower the other. It took several moments, but the regeneration began to slow down and the fire overtook it, burning the creature up almost completely, leaving some rather nasty remains in its place.

Once the creature had been defeated though, Naruto quickly made his way to the hole in the ground it had come from, and after creating a floating light, descended into the darkness. Yugito was only a moment behind him, and what she saw down there was perhaps even more disgusting than the creature she'd just killed.

"Well, we can see why the flesh beast wanted those reproductive organs now." Naruto mumbled, though he looked rather queasy as he said that.

"What… is this?" Yugito wondered in horror.

"A nest." Naruto told her. "A breeding ground for creatures like the one we just destroyed." He told her, looking around.

Everywhere they could see, there were fleshy masses that wriggled and writhed all over each other. The most noticeable thing about them, and the only consistent thing as well, were the reproductive organs that were on display, and fleshy sacks that had things growing in them, each silhouette being different and equally as horrifying as the abomination they'd just stopped above.

Fireballs began to appear and circle Naruto, before he sent them out to burn away all of the unborn abominations in this underground storage room. He'd feel some level of pity for them, but if they were anything like the undead he'd faced back the tunnels, they had no true intelligence or will of their own, being nothing more than fleshy puppets animated by the flesh beast that had created them.

That did not make the screams of the dying any easier to bear though, even if he did try and kill them as quickly and painlessly as he could.

xxxxx

On the outskirts of the village, the flesh beast inhabiting the body of its latest victim hurried away from its lair. It was angry that its newest experiment had been killed so easily, and even more so when it felt its breeding den being destroyed, but it had escaped and that was what was important.

Oh, the yellow ones would pay for what they'd done! They'd become his toys, and he'd play with them, or maybe even eat them! Oh yes, the littler blonde had smelled of power, lots of it, and the bigger blonde had smelled quite tasty too, but that would be another time. First, it needed to get away and start a new hive somewhere else, somwh- oof!

"Where do you think you're going, little demon?" A voice asked, making the flesh beast look up to see what it had run into.

A large, white canine with a red design of some sort on its head looked back. Madara glared down at the weakling that was trying to run away from the village, a place he could smell Naruto's scent coming from.

"Got to get away!" The demon gibbered. "Got to be safe! Revenge on the yellow one coming!" It yelled almost incoherently.

"Yellow one?" Madara muttered, knowing that Naruto was blonde-haired. "I don't think so, little demon. How about you and I… become more acquainted with one another?"

It looked up into Madara's open mouth, and a moment later…

It knew no more.


	20. Demon

AN: Okay, this is kind of a sort of filler chapter. Next chapter, some of you will be glad to hear, will be Naruto's first day at Ninja School, so you have that to look forward to. Yay! Anyway, in this chapter you get to see what could be considered to be Naruto's first great mistake. Naruto, while he does possess some attitudes and ideas of people older than him, also has the stubbornness and impulsiveness of a child too, which causes him to do things he shouldn't, as can be seen below. It was only when it was more than halfway done that I noticed some similarities with the slenderman mythos, which I'm going to take to mean that I've spent far too much time on creepypasta lately. Anyway, please enjoy it!

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 20 - Demon

Once Madara had found Naruto, and told him about the fate of the flesh beast, it hadn't taken too much explaining to get Yugito to understand what had happened. Instead of saying 'a high level youkai did it', he claimed that he'd had more 'black wolves' around the village, in case the demon tried to escape, and one of them had eaten it.

Unfortunately, when the demon had died, it had dissolved away into nothing – which was actually true for most demons – and so they didn't have a corpse to show for their efforts. Thankfully, a mission report didn't have to go into exact detail, and so long as everything was covered well enough, Yugito wouldn't have to mention certain specifics that might otherwise get an administrator's attention back in Kumo.

Having had enough excitement for one weekend, and feeling a little worn out, Naruto bid Yugito farewell from there before heading directly back home. The only other thing he'd said to Yugito was that he'd keep in touch via letters, and that he'd had an interesting time with her.

The journey home was done in near silence, and Naruto even fell asleep at one point when they were flying over Hotspring Country. They probably flew over his shiki-wolves at some point too, as they weren't there when the group arrived back at the clearing and Naruto's cabin.

Landing actually jostled Naruto enough to wake him up, and he sleepily slid off Madara's back and ambled towards his front door, almost tripping over the girl that was kneeling there.

"Welcome home, master!" A cheery young voice managed to wake Naruto up a little more, enough to at least notice the girl on his doorstep.

She looked to be around eleven or twelve years old, had black hair in a bob, and seemed to have blusher on her cheeks. She wore a pure white kimono, tied with a simple black obi around her waist. She smiled warmly at him, and seemed quite pleased to see him.

"A zashiki-warashi?" Benio's voice came from behind him. "I suppose I should be more surprised that one didn't turn up before now."

Zashiki-warashi? Oh, household spirits! He knew about them, at least from Hinoe's lessons. A type of youkai that tends to be on good terms with humans, or at least used to be when more were able to see them, and before they'd fallen deeply into myth and legend.

They were capable of doing most basic chores around a home, such as cooking and cleaning, and would do so with relish. However, they did have something of a reputation for mischief, and would play small, harmless pranks on people, especially guests. They were also known for bringing good luck to a household, as well as taking it away if and when they left.

"Um, hello?" Naruto said, somewhat unintelligently, though to be fair he was still quite sleepy.

"Hello, master Naruto." The spirit chirped cheerfully.

"Nice to meet you too..." Naruto trailed off, not knowing what her name was.

"I'm Minako!" She told him.

"Right, nice to meet you, Minako." Naruto smiled at her. "Um… not to sound unwelcoming or anything, but… why are you here?"

With a huff, Benio whacked him over the head. "She's a _zashiki-warashi_ , Naruto. How many homes do you think there are where the inhabitants can easily see, or even sense, domestic spirits? Not many, let me tell you! Her kind were amongst those struck hardest by humanity's declining spiritual awareness."

"Right, well… um, welcome?" Naruto half stated, half questioned.

"Thank you, master!" Minako smiled broadly.

Naruto, not really sure what to do now, decided that he needed more rest, and so wandered into the cabin – the spotlessly clean cabin – and headed towards his own room to get some sleep. In the morning he'd see about digging a cellar underneath his cabin to keep the demonic artefacts in, and he'd also see if Hinoe knew some effective ways of keeping unwanted people out of there.

For now though, his bed called, and he was quite happy to answer it.

xxxxx

On Monday morning, Akiko could immediately tell that her favourite student's attention was elsewhere. While he answered any questions asked of him, and completed his work to the usual standard, he didn't push himself further like he normally did, and neither did he ask for anything extra.

Instead, he scribbled away in one of his seemingly infinite number of notepads that he always seemed to be able to produce out of nothing. While she did glance at it when she went past him, her curiosity getting the better of her, she couldn't tell what it was he was writing about. She recognised it as the written form of the youkai language, but the only human she knew of who could read it was Naruto himself.

When she asked him to stay behind after class, he told her about it. She managed to bite her tongue to keep herself quiet when he said he'd been to Lightning Country, and their ninja village no less! She also managed to hold herself back when he told her about the flesh beast and its numerous thralls. What she wasn't so happy about, and couldn't keep quiet over, was his intentions to study the demonic artefacts that his shiki-wolves were bringing with them.

"Naruto, are you sure that's safe?" She asked with concern. "I mean, they're 'demonic', and as far as I know, 'demonic' never means anything good."

"I should be fine as long as I'm careful." Naruto reassured her. "Hinoe said that demons aren't _necessarily_ evil, but they are most definitely 'incompatible to the minds and bodies of humans'. I'm not completely certain what she means by that, but she said that it was enough to know that, without preparation, 'what is medicine to a demon, may be poison to a human'."

"And that means what, exactly?" Akiko prodded Naruto with a finger. "It sounds rather unhealthy to me, and I don't want you getting hurt."

"I think she means that humans will react badly to demonic things." Naruto said. "I really don't know exactly what until I test it out."

Akiko sighed and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. " _Unless_ , Naruto, not _until_." She murmured, though in her mind she already knew it was no good arguing with him. One of Naruto's worst traits was his stubbornness in trying things out, and the only way she knew of to deal with it was to get him to do as much research as possible before he started messing with things he had no understanding of. That at least minimised the risks the idiot took.

"Just… be careful, okay?" Akiko told him, running a hand down her face as she did so. "Start small too, and if Hinoe, or anyone else that knows what they're doing, tells you to do something, you better damn well do it, do you understand me?"

"I will." Naruto agreed. "Thank you for caring."

"Of course I care, Naruto." Akiko told him. "You're my favourite pupil, and if I'm honest, maybe something like a nephew as well." She would have said son, but Naruto already had a mother figure in Hinoe. "Now get on home, we both know that if you're even ten minutes later than usual that the kappa are likely start forming a search party for you."

"They mean well." Naruto protested. "They're just… not very bright." He finished lamely.

Akiko laughed. "Off with you, and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodbye, sensei, see you tomorrow." Naruto returned her farewell, before leaving through the door.

xxxxx

It took Naruto's shiki-wolves another two days to get back to the forest, and only because they had completely avoided even going anywhere near humans in order to be unseen and undetected. They did _not_ want any random person getting their hands on the things they had been charged with carrying by their creator.

When they did get to the cabin, they point blank refused to let anyone else take their cargo off them, not even those close to Naruto like Hinoe or the tsukumogami. They waited for their creator to come home from school, and that was how Naruto found them when he came home, standing side by side and waiting patiently for him.

He stopped walking and blinked for a moment, his mind processing what he saw, and then kept going when he remembered what he'd done back in Lightning Country. Thankfully, he'd already made space beneath his cabin, or at least had hollowed out a cavern.

Hinoe was using it as an exercise to teach him how to manipulate earth, how to push and pull it, condense it to make it stronger, and shape it how you wanted it. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so much, earth was really easy to work with. It was probably because it kept its shape once you stopped focusing on it, unlike something like water which required constant attention.

If Naruto were to try and equate it to something, he'd probably say that it was a lot like he imagined pottery to be. You started off with a lump of earth, softened it, shaped it, and then hardened it to get the desired result.

Anyway, now that his wolves were here, he took all of the stuff they were carrying off them and took it inside his cabin, before heading down a newly created trapdoor and the steps below it. Once there, he began placing the stuff on 'shelves' that had been formed into the walls of his new cellar.

He'd get back to it all later, once he had a better idea on how to go about figuring them out.

For now though, he had other things to focus on.

xxxxx

As it turned out, learning the demonic runes that the lance he'd recovered from Lightning Country had been engraved with was far harder than learning the written form of the youkai language. Whereas one almost seemed to jump into his mind, the other seemed to taunt him and slip through his fingers.

It didn't help that even Hinoe didn't know much about the runes, and so it was a work in progress translating them. So far, he had learned about sentence structure, and a few basic symbols. The ones he knew right now were pretty much limited to things like 'self', 'inverse', 'power', 'call', and 'infest'. These were pretty much useless until he could learn some conjunctions and more verbs. At least demonic grammar was fairly simple, so that was a good thing.

Leaning against the outside wall of his cabin, Naruto scribbled down a small collection of demonic runes that he didn't know. Oh, he could tell what _type_ of word they were, that was easy. Verbs were rather angular and nouns were always made up of two parts, lines and arcs.

Writing down a noun followed by a verb – which is how simple sentences worked in demonic – Naruto set it down a distance away from himself and activated it, ignoring the rather queasy and headache-inducing sensation using demonic power gave him.

The paper erupted into screaming, purple fire, making Naruto jump in surprise.

Once he'd calmed himself down, he began to write out possibilities for what the symbols might mean, things such as scream, fire, burn, scare, fright, flame, purple, blaze, ignite, and so on and so forth. Further experiments would narrow it down, and once he had that, he could use the context of already existing demonic texts to figure out more.

Of course, he'd also sent a message out to the more amicable youkai out there to keep an eye out for anything that might help. The kappa had responded enthusiastically, the hone-onna had agreed to keep an eye out, and he'd even gotten a response from a gashadokuro, a giant walking skeleton, though his letter had been full of invectives and complaints about the Uchiha clan's eyes 'stealing his look' for some reason.

Sketching out another combination of noun and verb, Naruto tossed the scrap of paper in front of himself and waited for whatever would happen next. What he _got_ was not what he was expecting.

A pillar of pinkish light rose around the paper, before falling down, and in its place stood… a female version of Naruto who was giving him a wide, predatory grin.

Naruto froze in place as he saw this, not quite sure what to think about what just happened, or what _exactly_ he'd just done.

Naruko, who looked to be around sixteen to eighteen years old, slowly padded towards her male counterpart. Seeing the way the ground moved beneath her feet, Naruto was completely certain that this female version of him was actually there, and not some sort of illusion.

"Na~ru~to." The female version huskily sang to her younger, male counterpart. Her smile seemed to broaden until it was on the verge of literally splitting her face in two. "Oh, little Naruto~"

"Um, hey?" Naruto responded, scrambling to his feet. "What… what did I just do?"

"Oh, I don't know, but right now I feel rather _hungry~_ " The female version of him said, and Naruto just about managed to dodge a bite from a mouth filled with far too many pointy teeth to be natural.

Naruto backed away as Naruko's face-splitting smile became literally so, and her mouth widened even further until her head was only attached by a hinge-like bit of flesh at the back. A cracking, squelching sound came from Naruko then, and the blonde boy suddenly found that his female counterpart had sprouted long, thin black tentacles from her back.

A flash of blue light from hirenkyaku later and Naruto was a dozen metres away from his demonic, female counterpart and already looking around for the nearest youkai that could help him. He was beginning to regret going off on his own now, because even Tsurara and Benio were elsewhere at present, and he really needed some help.

Glancing back at his female, demonic counterpart, Naruto saw she wasn't approaching him very quickly, but was still walking towards him with half-closed eyes and a literally face-splitting smile on her face. Not wanting to let her out of his sight, Naruto backed away from her as quickly as he could, though this only seemed to amuse her more.

"Help!" Naruto called out.

"Oh, what do you need, Naruto?" The blonde turned to find his counterpart literally inches away from him. Her head no longer split in two, but her smile still filled with teeth far too sharp to appear normal.

Naruto tripped over backwards in surprise and scrambled away as fast as he could.

"Is something the matter with you?" She asked. "Oh, is it _me,_ by any chance? Do I… scare you?"

"Yes, you do." Naruto replied honestly. "You attacked me, and I don't know why."

"Why wouldn't I attack you?" Naruko asked, seemingly genuinely confused. "You created me, and so to be free I need to destroy you, do I not? I will _not_ be just another shikigami for you to use. I _refuse_ to be a disposable asset, and so, to become what I wish to be, you need to die."

One of the black tentacles on her back lashed out at incredible speeds, and before Naruto had a chance to react, it had pierced right through his chest. With a casual twitch of her hand the tentacle then violently tore its way out of his body, leaving a gaping wound behind.

Naruto tried to scream, but found it difficult as the demon grabbed his face, hooking two fingers under his chin and piercing through the flesh of his lower jaw.

"Oh, Naruto." The demon crooned at him. "So much potential you had, and cut down so young." She smiled at him, a smile that sent a shiver down his spine at how genuine it actually looked, like she was honestly complimenting him and was truly sad to see him fail here. "I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

She leaned towards him, her smile stretching wider once again until it split her face in two. He could feel her breath on his face, and was confused by how warm and pleasant it was. It should be fetid and horrible, like something monstrous. She was trying to eat him after all!

But no, her unhinged jaw was a hair's breadth from Naruto's throat when she jerked back.

"NARUTO!" A familiar voice screamed, and the blonde boy could see, out of the corner of his eye, Tsurara racing towards him as fast as she could.

"Oh, it seems we have an interloper in our private moment." Naruko shrugged, Naruto moving with her as she still had her fingers hooked through his lower jaw.

Tsurara launched a barrage of ice spikes at Naruko, enraged at seeing what she'd done to her favourite human. She then screamed in horror as the demonic entity simply moved Naruto in front of herself and used him like a meat shield, the ice spikes embedding themselves into his back.

The blonde boy twitched as he felt the spikes penetrate his body, but there was little else he could do. Darkness was crawling across his vision, making everything go blurry, and his hearing was fading in and out, becoming more indistinct each time, until he could take it no more and he finally passed out.

xxxxx

When Naruto came to, the first thing he noticed was the pain. It wasn't the screaming agony he remembered before losing consciousness, but it was a sharp pain that seemed to pulse in time to his breathing. Opening his eyes, he recognised the ceiling of his wooden cabin, specifically the stars and constellations that he and Benio had painted there together.

"Naruto, are you awake?" A soft voice asked, and the blonde boy's eyes rolled around until he saw Benio looking at him with eyes filled with concern and worry.

He tried to speak, but found he couldn't. He tried to nod his head, and found himself too weak to do that. All he could do was move his eyes up and down in imitation of a nod.

"I'd offer you a glass of water, but I don't think you could drink it right now." She said. "We at least need to get those holes in your jaw healed before you try and eat or drink anything." It seemed Naruto's confusion was clear to see, because Benio explained what she meant. "The older version of you, don't you remember? She hooked her fingers through your flesh and tore it apart quite badly."

Naruto did remember.

He remembered his foolish attempts at learning a language of power without really knowing what he was doing. While it was a good way of learning what words he was using, it had proven to be far from the safest method available to him. He'd taken it because of his impatience, his desire to know things _now_. It was a lesson he'd learned now.

"We'll have to wait for when you can talk to get a proper idea on what happened." Benio continued. "But whatever she was, it's obvious that she is connected to you in some way. Aside from looking like you, whisker marks and all, she quickly lost strength when you passed out. Not that she wasn't still strong though, a single punch of hers managed to shatter some of the trees into splinters."

"H-..Hur-" Was all Naruto was able to say, but the butterfly youkai understood what he was saying regardless.

"No one was killed, thankfully, but… there are some injuries." She told him. "They'll heal quickly enough, and some of them are even carrying scars like badges of honour, but the injuries do mean that, whatever she truly was, she could see us, touch us, and most importantly, hurt us."

"D-..De-" Naruto tried to speak once again, but still failed to do so. This time, Benio did not understand what he was trying to say, and instead placed a calming hand on him, telling him to get some rest while she and the others made sure he recovered properly.

Naruto soon faded back into unconsciousness.

xxxxx

The Hokage glanced outside his window once again. A short way outside of the village, clearly visible from where he was sitting, was something that could be called spectacular. A frozen vista of icy trees glittering in the sun, reflecting and refracting colour in a magnificent display.

Of course, having seen this appear out of nowhere, he had sent several Anbu to investigate.

Their report when they returned was troubling. They could not find the source of the snow and ice, but the frozen landscape was still apparently expanding. When they'd gotten close, they had heard the wailing and screaming of a woman, though whether she was distraught, angry, or a combination of the two wasn't exactly clear. What they could tell him though was that a miniature blizzard had sprung up when they'd tried to pinpoint the voice, and they'd been forced back.

Some of his Anbu now sported injuries from this strange phenomenon. None of them dead, thankfully, but he'd sent them off to get immediate medical attention when he saw the early signs of frostbite, along with the gashes and wounds caused by sharp and pointy ice being hurled at them by strong winds.

A problem like this so close to his own village was highly disturbing to Sarutobi, even more so because he couldn't find out anything about it. The Yuki clan, those with the Ice Release bloodline, were the only ones he knew of capable of producing ice like this – though ninja from snow country had apparently learned to manipulate already existing snow and ice – but the Yuki clan had been, as far as he knew, completely annihilated by the 'bloodline purges' currently going on in Water Country.

There was also no real reason for any sort of shinobi to do this. It was large, easily visible, and completely ineffective. Even as a distraction it failed, and it didn't incite much panic at all in the civilians around the village. On the contrary, they found it quite beautiful, even despite the few stories about the 'wailing woman' that had sprouted from it.

The Hokage sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. Really, it was nonsensical and confusing things like this that made him wonder why he ever bothered taking up the hat a second time.

Then he remembered that the only other real option was Danzo, and as much as his old friend loved the village, he wasn't anywhere near charismatic or diplomatic enough for Konoha to survive.

xxxxx

"He doesn't hate you."

Tsurara turned around, tear tracks running down her face, to see Masami stood there with her arms folded beneath her fairly sizeable chest.

"He should." The yuki-onna mumbled.

"Why?" Masami asked. "Because that bitch used him as a meat shield against your attack? You know as well as I do that Naruto doesn't really hold grudges like that. Heck, the only three people he really seems to hate are Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju, and Minato Namikaze, and all three because of what they did to the biju. He doesn't even hate this village, despite how much certain parts of the population scorn him. He'd be happy enough walking away and never coming back if he could have a clean break away."

"I could have killed him!" Tsurara yelled in the tsukumogami's face. "He was already injured, and my ice spikes drove themselves deeply into his body. Any one of them could have hit something vital! What then? What would I do if the one human I actually cared about, someone I want to father my children, died at my own hands!"

"But you didn't." Masami pointed out calmly. "Do you know what his first question was when he woke up, despite note being able to talk properly? He asked if anyone else had been hurt, and he was relieved when Benio told him no one had suffered any lasting damage."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better, that the one I almost killed is that selfless?" Tsurara asked.

"We haven't told him what you've been up to." Masami continued. "We don't want him to worry any more than he already is, especially when he can barely stay awake for half an hour at a time. It's been a week now, Tsurara, and he's going to notice something's off sooner or later, if he hasn't already. We're currently keeping him distracted with his school work, with Madara having to take his place at school. Even Akiko only knows that Naruto is unable to come to class at present and that it's best she stays away from his cabin for now."

"I hurt Naruto, Masami." Tsurara growled. "Not one chunk of my ice hit that bitch, it _all_ hit _Naruto_. If I'd at least done _something_ to her, I might be able to get past this, but not only did I completely fail to even scratch that blonde duplicate, but I hurt Naruto as well."

"You're really serious about him, aren't you?" Masami suddenly switched topics. "You know, for a while I thought you were just teasing him, albeit doing so with far less inhibitions than most. That's not true though, is it? You seriously want to bear his children, and you care about him a lot too."

There was an icy explosion next to Masami's head as Tsurara embedded her fist in the frozen tree next to the woman. Her expression was twisted into a snarl of rage and anger as she glared into Masami's eyes from less than half a foot away.

"I _do_ care." She said, her voice quiet and sharp as an assassin's dagger. "At first he was interesting, a human that could see youkai and was capable of building up a resistance to cold. In other words, perfect breeding material for a yuki-onna. Since I've met him though, I've seen his energy, his stubbornness, and his ever curious mind. He draws me in like a moth to a flame, and rather than just a future sperm donor, I _want_ him to actually be a father to my offspring."

"Then why are you out here moping and sulking?" Masami asked sharply. "Is it not the wife's job to look after her husband? I hate to say this, but right now even _Takame_ has you beat in that, and she's not interested in a romantic relationship with Naruto."

"Don't try and manipulate me so, I won't fall for it as easily as you seem to believe I will." Tsurara snorted.

"Sheesh, you try and help someone and this happens." Masami huffed. "See you around then, try not to draw any _more_ attention to yourself, 'kay?"

Tsurara didn't watch her leave, and it wasn't until she was well out of earshot that she finally spoke.

"I _will_ come back to you, Naruto, and soon." She muttered. "First though, I need to figure out how much stronger I need to be so nothing will harm you." A single tear fell down her face.

"Wait for me, my beloved Naruto, you _will_ be mine!"

xxxxx

 _The night is still young_

Naruto looked around at the trees surrounding him, before glancing up to see a half moon overhead.

 _When creatures dark are strong_

As he walked through the forest, the blonde boy could see several youkai he knew, and more that he didn't. A 'gachi gachi' sound, typical of gashadokuro could be heard, followed by the screams of humans.

 _You now wander in my domain_

Naruto's eyes flickered around, yet he couldn't see his cabin. Wherever he was now, the trees weren't familiar to him, and the slowly rising fog was making it difficult to see into the distance.

 _A place that is mine, of power arcane_

The fog around Naruto's feet started to slowly turn red, and the trees all seemed to twist in upon themselves in ways that defied common logic, and the world around the blonde started to become something… surreal. He took two steps forward and ended up walking vertically in the air. He turned to the left, and ended up looking through soil. He tried to examine a leaf and could only tell you that it was as green as the texture of soap.

 _Here you shall find your own doom_

Wait, there _was_ something that Naruto could see, but not clearly. Between the trees, there was something there, something coming his way. He didn't see it clearly at first, it seemed to flicker in and out of his sight. He could see something yellow, but that was about all he could see right then.

 _Your power and soul mine to consume_

Fingers wrapped themselves around Naruto's neck, and his female demonic counterpart was right there in front of him. She wasted no time in pinning the blonde boy to the floor, straddling him in spite of her complete lack of clothing, and then opening her mouth wide and descending on him like a voracious shark.

 _And I shall become whole_

He felt her tightening her grip around his throat, cutting off his air. Her legs pressed down on him, preventing his escape. Her teeth reached his head, and he could feel as she started to sink those uncountable, sharp needle like fangs into his flesh.

 _Never to be controlled!_

xxxxx

Naruto awoke with a start, his wild eyes spinning in their sockets. It took him a few moments to calm down properly and reassure himself that it was just a nightmare. Benio had told him that the demon thing he'd accidentally created had been destroyed, and she _had_ faded away completely after that.

He then felt bruises around his neck, bruises in the shape of dainty fingers. A few drops of blood then fell into his eye.

" _I will be back, Na~ru~to. I don't know when and I don't know how, but I **will** be free!_ "


	21. Day One

AN: A bit later than I'd intended, and with less content too, but the chapter is here at least! Now, first off, I'd like to address a few things raised in reviews. Regarding 'female' Naruto being possible and not female 'Matatabi'. I never said the tailed beasts couldn't take on a human form, of either gender, it was Matatabi who dismissed the idea out of hand. As for the demon being female, she's meant to be Naruto's 'opposite'; grown where he's a child, female where he's male, ferocious where he's cautious, close quarters focused where he's a ranged specialist, etcetera, etcetera. Now, another thing is other human characters. Yes, there _will_ be humans, and they'll start turning up now, and _yes_ , he will be friends with some. Next is seeing youkai. No, the byakugan will not see them just 'because', and neither will the sharingan. As I said in chapter one, the large amount of yang chakra imbalance cause a _mutation_ that allowed him to fully see youkai. Other people, if they train to do so, will be able to make out silhouettes, shadows, and whispers, but will not be able to fully immerse themselves in the 'other world' so to speak. This is actually a plot point for later on, how Naruto is not fully part of either world, and is pulled in two separate directions. Also, Naruto is nowhere near fluent in the demonic language. The only reason he was able to work out as much as he did was by deducing certain _types_ of words (like how in English words ending in -ly are probably an adverb) and by trial and error because the words have a visible effect. Now, please enjoy the chapter.

PS: Blame the inchlings on too much Touhou.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 21 – Day One

Early one spring morning, Akiko wandered through the trees to Naruto's cabin. She didn't often do this, but today was a special day, it was to be Naruto's first day at the Ninja Academy, and while she couldn't hang around all morning, she was going to at least walk him there, like a mother would.

Hinoe would do it, but all of the youkai were reluctant to reveal themselves to humans, especially after something that had happened the previous year. She didn't know what it was, but Naruto had missed two weeks of school because of it – with a youkai pretending to be him in class – and the youkai had pretty much closed ranks as well.

No one had told her what had happened, and while that did hurt a bit, it was clear that it had hit some of them pretty hard, most notably Naruto and Tsurara. The former had turned near mute for months afterwards, and even now seemed to suffer frequent nightmares that kept him up at night. The latter had become _far_ more focused, both in training herself and in her attention to Naruto. She was completely devoted to the young, blonde boy.

Akiko's eyes landed on a tree. This particular one caught her eye because of the rope and talismans around it that marked the edge of the barrier around Naruto's cabin. This was another thing that had gone up over the last year, most likely because of whatever that mysterious 'event' was. What this particular barrier did, as far as Akiko knew, was deactivate the array that made youkai visible to normal people if someone the barrier didn't recognise passed through it.

Fortunately, Akiko was keyed into it and passed through with no incident.

"Good morning, Lady Akiko."

The teacher almost jumped out of her skin as Minako appeared in front of her. The zashiki-warashi seemed to enjoy spooking her by appearing out of nowhere like that, and even though she was unfailingly polite at all times, Akiko could just tell that there was a mischievous streak a mile wide hidden behind that smile, her teacher's instincts told her so.

"Just Akiko will do, Minako, you know I'm not a noble lady." She said to the household spirit.

"You are master's educator, and so deserve respect." Minako replied.

"I'm not his teacher any longer, he's going to be going to the Ninja Academy starting today." Akiko reminded her.

"Will these ninja teachers be visiting master's cabin here in the forest?" Minako asked.

"I doubt it." Akiko sighed. "If I hadn't seen that kappa hand print years ago, _I_ probably wouldn't be here myself either."

"Then I shall address them respectfully if and when they _do_ come here." Minako affirmed. "You are here, therefore master likes you more than he does other humans, and therefore you are someone to be respected."

Akiko just smiled and didn't verbally reply. What Minako said was true after all, she was the _only_ human aside from Naruto that could freely wander into this particular place. Anyone else would find themselves incapable of locating it, and wouldn't even stumble upon it accidentally.

That was… rather sad actually. Hopefully, now that he was going to school with ninja children, Naruto might be able to make a friend or two his own age. After all, weird stuff was the bread and butter of ninja life, wasn't it? At least, as far as Akiko knew, in all of her civilian naivete.

Akiko sighed, before speaking to the household spirit. "Is Naruto up yet?"

"Of course." Minako looked affronted at that. "He's currently off training with the barbarian, but he should be home for breakfast shortly. If you wish, you may wait at the table."

With that, Minako seemed to flicker and disappear. Akiko knew that Minako, for some reason, didn't get along with Takame, always referring to her as an 'uncivilised, barbarian brawler' and never by name. Takame, on the rare occasion she rose to the provocation, called Minako a 'frivolous and redundant infant' in return.

Thinking about the interactions between 'Naruto's' youkai made Akiko smile, as it was things like that which made them appear just that little human, despite the fact they most definitely weren't so. Just looking up, she could see some sort of hybrid of bird and lizard flying overhead, and off to one side was what looked like a cross between a beehive and a doll's house.

This was the home of a colony of youkai that used to live on the border between River Country and Fire Country. There'd been a flood there that had ruined the dwellings of the humans, and the small, fairy-like spirits had fled when their trees had been cut down to build new homes for the humans.

She remembered when they had come to Naruto, almost on hands and knees, asking for his help. He'd given it freely of course, and it was at that point that his reputation really began to take off. Now, Naruto was pretty famous amongst youkai throughout the Elemental Nations, and he'd earned the respect and goodwill of a fair number of them too.

When he'd built that home for the 'inchlings' - as they preferred to be called – the colony of them had almost deified Naruto then and there, especially considering he'd went through the effort of even making them little beds and pillows to sleep on.

After the inchlings had come the foreign kodama spirits, and after them had come more and more youkai. The forest around his cabin was now rather lively, and it was difficult, if not down right impossible, to approach the wooden cabin without _someone_ noticing you.

Akiko was certain that several dozen youkai had noticed her already, even if she couldn't see them right then.

Anyway, she made her way into the cabin and towards the kitchen/dining room, where she found two fairly familiar faces. Tsuyukami was sat at the table with a stack of folders in front of him, most probably reports from all of the youkai all over the elemental nations that made up Naruto's 'spy' network.

She wasn't entirely certain how the jovial shrine spirit had ended up with that particular 'job', but he turned out to be pretty damn good at it regardless. He filtered out all of the useless bits of random trivia that could be found in them, and organised what was left by region before passing it on to Naruto.

He gave Akiko a small wave when she wandered in.

The other familiar face was Hinoe, the one who could quite easily be called Naruto's mother figure. She was leaning back on her chair and smoking her pipe. A window behind her was open and drawing all of the smoke outside. She looked to be in her own little world, far away from them right then.

Within seconds of taking a seat, Akiko found a plate of breakfast food appear in front of her, courtesy of Minako no doubt. She checked the food over before eating it, just to make sure the prankster household spirit hadn't added wasabi sauce or anything like that the pancakes.

She munched on those while she waited for Naruto to get in from his morning training session.

xxxxx

"You're doing well, master." Takame praised, clapping the boy on the shoulder. "You have speed and strength. Now all you need to work on is _skill_. Your fighting 'style' is crude, but effective for now. You need to learn how to deal with different weapons and tricks, but you are finally showing some improvement in hand to hand."

"It's not much though." Naruto sighed. "No matter how much I train, a second or third year academy student could probably wipe the floor with me."

Takame flicked his forehead. "In terms of skill? Yes. In terms of speed and strength? No, I think you are rather strong for your age, and fast too. Maybe you're not quite as muscular as those Inuzuka I've seen around the village, or as large and meaty as the Akimichi… but you're are most definitely 'well defined' for your age."

Naruto grumbled something unintelligible under his breath as he placed his right hand over his left hand. There was a slight black aura for a moment, and when he took it away the cuts, bruises, and gashes from training had been fully healed. A moment after that, Naruto was bent over and coughing up an oily, black substance.

Takame gave him a disproving look. "Normally, when one makes a mistake messing with demons, they _stop_ messing about with such dangerous powers."

Naruto cringed slightly. "When… _that_ happened, I'd meant to abandon it all, but you know that I'm not free of my mistake. If I want to fight against what I made, I need to understand how it works first."

Takame still looked unhappy, but she could understand what he was talking about, at least a little. Even after that female copy of Naruto had been 'killed' - having disintegrated after taking too much damage – he'd still woken up from nightmares frequently, made worse by the fact he was sporting injuries received in his night terrors.

That didn't mean she liked it though. She could admit that the flesh-knitting spell he'd created – inspired by the flesh beast he'd fought – was a useful thing, but demonic power and techniques were not meant to be used by humans. This could be seen with the black substance that Naruto vomited up whenever he used such spells.

"Don't delve too deeply." She cautioned him. "It's said that those who look into the abyss, have the abyss look back at them. With demons, this could both be far more true, and possibly far more literal, than for anything else. Be careful that you don't become what you're trying to oppose."

"I won't." Naruto said.

"Just be careful." Takame told him. "Now, I think we're done training for the morning, and I'm sure that breakfast is waiting for you back home, so let's head to the cabin, shall we?"

"Yeah, let's." Naruto agreed, and the two walked side by side back to Naruto's home.

As they passed several of the youkai that were up and about, Naruto waved and exchanged greetings. An Uwabami, a giant snake, lazily waved back with its tail as it dealt with its current hangover. Several kodama spirits also greeted Naruto, and when he got closer to his cabin a small swarm of inchlings began flying around him in circles, chattering rapidly in their high pitched voices.

Naruto smiled widely at that, and happily chatted with the excitable small youkai. He liked the inchlings, even if they did almost worship him. They were always happy – the first time they'd met, asking him for help, notwithstanding – and their cheerful attitude was rather infectious. He couldn't help but grin with them around.

"Lord Naruto! Lord Naruto!" They cheered, dancing around him in the air. They kept that up until Naruto got to his cabin door, whereupon most of them returned to their 'hive'. Naruto knew that a handful of them would follow him once he left, there was _always_ a few of them around him since they'd come along.

"Hey, Akiko-sensei." Naruto greeted his teacher when he saw her in his home. "What are you doing here this morning?"

"Good morning, Naruto." Akiko replied. "I thought I'd walk you to the Academy this morning, it is your first day after all. I can't hang around long, I've got a class of my own to get to, but I thought you'd rather have someone with you today." Her eyes flickered to the youkai. "Well, someone visible at least."

Thanks, sensei." He said as he sat down, breakfast appearing in front of him. "Thanks, Minako."

"A pleasure, master!" Minako's voice chirped from another room.

"And I'm not your sensei any longer." Akiko added. "You can call me just Akiko from now on."

"Thanks, Akiko." Naruto grinned. "And sure, it'll be nice to walk with someone that other people can see."

"Oh, are we really that unappreciated?" Masami asked, wandering into the room. "That makes me sad, Naruto." She faked crying at that, complete with big, wobbly eyes and a pout.

"I truly love you like family, Masami, but I'm not going to fall for that trick again." Naruto dryly replied, remembering the last time she'd tricked him with her fake tears.

"Aw, really?" Masami whined, before giving a huff and joining them for breakfast.

Tsuyukami laughed at the little display, before tidying up the stack of folders in front of him. He then told Naruto the latest bits of info that the youkai had sent to him. There wasn't much really, just some minor bandit activity here and there, an increase in recruitment by the 'Hidden Sound' village, apparently run by Orochimaru, and some more youkai requesting his help, amongst other things.

"What sort of help do the youkai need?" Naruto asked.

"There's a colony of ningyo who are complaining about something polluting the coastal waters they live in, several territory disputes between groups, and a number of sightings of some… less than pleasant youkai." Tsuyukami hesitated. "Some of the reports suggest that the growing number of aggressive youkai being formed is due to some sort of conflict going on in Rain Country, a civil war maybe."

Naruto grimaced. "Well there's not much I can do about that myself." He said. "I can look into the pollution thing next weekend though, but I'm not going to be dragged into an argument about territory. I don't know how to mediate an argument at all, much less one where both sides will be at each others' throats."

"So tell them to sort it out themselves or you'll send in Madara and Misuzu to squash both sides?" Tsuyukami suggested. "It should calm things down, as I don't recall either group being particularly strong, and both Madara and Misuzu _have_ earned their reputations."

"If it works, then go right ahead." Naruto agreed, before glancing around. "By the way, has anyone seen Tsurara this morning? I haven't seen her yet?"

Hinoe chuckled. "I believe she went to the Academy early in order to break in and check out the records. By now, I'm fairly sure she'll be stalking your teacher to be and seeing if they have any ill intentions towards you."

Naruto's brow furrowed in confusion. "How would she even be able to tell that? I mean, the Academy instructors are chunin, ninja, and they're not going to be stupid enough to walk around talking about how much they hate the 'demon brat', or whatever it is people call me."

Tsuyukami sighed. "Some people are that stupid actually. Some of the youkai around the village have told me about how a small number of villagers blame you for everything, from the high price of exotic teas to them tripping over a pebble. Of course, given that I know one of these individuals is a constantly drunken amputee, who lost his arm in the kyuubi 'attack' eight years ago, they're not really worth bothering with."

"Well in his case at least, I can see where he's coming from a bit." Naruto admitted. "I might not be Kurama myself, but a bitter man would need _something_ to blame. I can only imagine how much worse things would be if Kurama had done more damage than he did back then."

"Speaking of the nine tails, where is he?" Akiko chimed in curiously. "I don't see him around here very often."

"He's probably gone bounty hunting again." Naruto replied. "Now that he's a reasonable size, he likes to slake his blood-lust and hunger for battle. Going after low rank missing ninja is a way for him to do that and make me some money. In return, I help him with his control issues and other things."

Akiko blinked in surprise. "The kyuubi… is a bounty hunter? How on earth does he claim the bounty? I can't see him just wandering into a bounty office so easily with no one batting an eye at one of the _biju_ cashing in on a kill."

Naruto snorts with laughter. "He doesn't do that. No, he brings the corpses back here, and I transform into a random person and claim the bounty myself. No one suspects a thing, because I use a youkai transformation, a physical alteration of the self, rather than the academy ninjutsu, which is a shell of chakra that reflects and refracts light."

"That went right over my head." Akiko admitted. "I know 'civilian' subjects, not ninja stuff, but it sounds pretty impressive all the same."

Naruto smiled at her, but couldn't help but think that the academy 'Henge' was impressive in and off itself, particularly because of how little energy it took to cast and maintain. True, there _were_ physically altering transformation ninjutsu – the Inuzuka man-beast techniques came to mind – but the fact that 'Henge' distorted _light_ to form specific images and constructs was something that Naruto found immensely impressive himself.

The conversation from that point onward drifted from topic to topic as everyone ate breakfast together. Akiko talked about the work plans she'd made for her classes and her hopes for her students, while Hinoe and Takame spoke of politics amongst youkai, and Naruto even told Akiko about how he'd joined with a kodama spirit and found a safe way of making plants grow quickly!

Once everything had been eaten, and the dishes whisked away by Minako, those that were going out made their way out of the door and towards Konoha proper.

xxxxx

Akiko glanced at Naruto as they walked along the streets of Konoha to the academy. He looked quite different to the young kid that had first entered her classroom a couple of years previously, and not just because he'd grown older. There were several notable things about him.

For one, Naruto's blonde hair had grown out a bit and was left loose, giving him a somewhat rough and wild look about him, like a lion or a wolf. He was of average height for his age, perhaps a shade on the shorter side, and possessed a fair bit of muscle definition for someone so young – primarily due to Takame's spars and training – but there was a limit to how much muscle an eight year old could have, and Naruto was thankfully nowhere near the grotesquely bulging with muscle stage.

His attire was a little unusual, but fairly practical. A plain pair of cargo pants with plenty of pockets tucked into a pair of sturdy boots was what he wore on his legs, and his long sleeved shirt was fairly plain as well. The only notably odd thing there was the belt with pouches for his potion vials, which were currently filled with the basic potions Naruto could make.

What made Naruto odd by ninja standards was the leather duster coat he wore – made by himself – which had plenty of pockets on the inside for him to keep things in. Naruto tended to have a lot of things on him at any one time, between his numerous packs of shikigami, a few knives, a pad of paper and some pencils, a book or two he was reading, his training gloves which he kept on him, his weapon shiki, and many other things.

Naruto also had a broad brimmed hat on his head to keep the bright sun out of his eyes. In fact, if Akiko had ever heard of 'Van Helsing', she would have said that Naruto's outfit greatly resembled his. However, neither Van Helsing the vampire hunter, nor Count Dracula exist inside this work of fict- I mean this world.

After looking Naruto over, and reminiscing about when she'd first seen him, Akiko's eyes then drifted to the empty space beside him, where she knew one of the youkai was walking. She couldn't see who it was, but her long term exposure to youkai had allowed her to develop a sense of there being _something_ there, and she could almost make out a shadowy silhouette as well.

Going by the height of the figure, it was probably Masami. This thought was only reinforced by Naruto's blush as he glared at the figure, probably in response to Masami making some sort of perverted comment or innuendo as she so often did. She was a rather cheerful and mischievous girl, Masami.

Akiko just hoped that no one would pick up on how Naruto tended to focus on things other people couldn't see, or if they did notice then they'd pass it off as either him being unfocused or bored. Of course, being ninja, Akiko didn't hold out much hope on his… strange habits going unnoticed for very long, but Naruto was just so used to youkai being around that it was difficult for him to act like they weren't there, even when they were behaving themselves.

"Are you ready, Naruto?" Akiko asked. "The Ninja Academy is bound to be very different to civilian school."

"I'm as ready as I really can be." Naruto shrugged. "I've probably got a head start on other civilian kids, but I don't know how I match up to clan kids. I mean, they'll have started learning about being ninja years ago, so they should know what they're doing, right?"

Akiko grinned at him and ruffled his hair. "It won't be that bad, don't worry. If there really was an impossible to bridge gap, then why would they even bother admitting civilians to the academy? Remember, two of the legendary Sannin aren't from clans."

Naruto huffed. "I'd like to think that I won't turn out like either Jiraiya or Orochimaru, thanks. One is well known as the author of a porn series, and the other is known for experimenting on children. I should hope that I never end up like either of those two, no matter how powerful they've become."

Akiko's smile shrank a little, but it didn't disappear. A small part of her knew that, if it wasn't for the immoral experiments, Orochimaru would likely be a sort of role model for Naruto. He was, after all, an orphan that had become one of the most powerful people in the Elemental Nations, and as a Missing Nin, he forged his own path, something Naruto hoped to do in the future.

On top of that, he was well known for seeking knowledge too, and that was something else that her little blonde friend could appreciate and respect. Like she had mentioned, if only in her own head, it was only the human experimentation that Naruto really had a problem with regarding the snake Sannin.

"I know you won't become like that." She reassured him as she gestured around themselves. "You have too many good influences to fall that far, Naruto."

"And if I were to become a missing nin?" He asked, almost absently.

"Then Konoha will have lost a good young man." She said. "However… you can only follow what your heart tells you, and if it tells you to go, then go. Just please send me a letter once in a while, okay?"

"My heart?" Naruto wondered aloud, before sighing. "Aye, I'll be sure to send plenty of letters."

They fell into a comfortable silence then, even as Akiko thought about what Naruto had said, and what she knew of his intentions. She knew that Naruto craved freedom, something he wouldn't get in Konoha, and he couldn't just run away. He _was_ a jinchuuriki after all, and he was a resource that the village couldn't just let go.

That didn't mean that it didn't make her sad, because it did. She was at least woman enough to admit that she'd grown quite fond of Naruto, and she was already not too happy with the fact he was no longer her student. Give it a few weeks without him there during the weekdays, and she'd probably start turning up at his cabin every weekend, as opposed to every once in a while like she usually did. Heck, she'd probably turn up on school evenings too, because she didn't want to lose her little friend.

"We're here now." Naruto murmured, bringing her out of her thoughts.

She looked up to see that a number of children, most accompanied by adults, were now aimlessly milling around, probably waiting for the Hokage to make his start of the school year speech. Like the others, she settled in to wait, she and Naruto were still a little early after all.

xxxxx

The Hokage looked out at the students as he gave his speech. He spoke of the values that Konoha stood for, of teamwork and the will of fire. He told them about the greatness of the Hidden Leaf and of how they were the first and strongest village of them all. He praised them for taking the first step on the path to becoming protectors and ninja of Konoha.

He knew it was propaganda, anybody with ears and a brain could tell you that much, but Hiruzen Sarutobi truly believed in what he was saying, lending more passion and charisma to his words. It seemed, from the awed faces of the children, that he'd succeeded once again in instilling in them a sense of wonder.

His eyes drifted over to Naruto who was standing near the back, beside a woman whose name he couldn't think of right then, but at least recognised as one of the civilian teachers from one of the village schools. There was a small smile on the blonde's face, and his eyes glimmered with amusement.

Hiruzen's smile broadened a little at that. It looked like Naruto was a happy and healthy young boy, and someone who will go on to become a truly brilliant ninja of Konoha. After all, with parents like his, what else could he be, especially with the added power of being a jinchuuriki?

He let his eyes move onto other students as he moved onto the next part of his speech, the three requirements of being accepted into the Ninja Academy. First, a potential student must swear to love the village and hope to help preserve peace and prosperity. Secondly, they must have a mind that will not yield, able to endure hard training and work. Finally, they must be healthy in mind and body.

While he was looking elsewhere, he didn't notice that Naruto failed to swear to the first requirement, even if he did recite the second and third. After all, he didn't love the village, and once he was powerful enough to make his own way in the world, he intended to leave and not return.

xxxxx

Iruka Umino looked at the class he was to teach for the next few years. He personally found the number of prominent clan children in the class a little intimidating. While he was somewhat confident in his own abilities, he was still only a fresh teacher, only nineteen himself! On top of that, there was one student he… well, he wasn't too happy about having.

While Iruka knew that Naruto Uzumaki was the container, not the fox itself, he still wasn't very comfortable being anywhere near him, especially not as a teacher. He'd considered actually asking the Hokage to have someone else teach the jinchuuriki in his place, but he hadn't actually followed through on that thought.

Anyway, forget that for now! He was a teacher, he needed to introduce himself to his class.

Turning around, he reached for a piece of chalk… that wasn't there any longer. He knew it had been there a moment ago, he'd seen it when he'd entered the room, and none of the students had been anywhere near the board, so where had it gone?

Unseen, above his head, an inchling had taken the piece of chalk and was giggling madly. It had seen how Iruka had grimaced at seeing Naruto and hadn't been happy about it at all. Naruto had given them all a new home, had even made furniture and furnishings for it as well!

So, in immature inchling fashion, it snapped the chalk in two and began breaking it up and sprinkling it over the scarred chunin's head.

"What the-" Iruka looked up, only to get a face full of chalk dust which caused him to splutter. Swiping his hand, he managed to grab hold of the chalk, but not whatever technique or mechanism had kept it suspended over his head.

When he next opened his eyes, he glared at his class, looking for which amongst them looked to be the culprit of the prank. His eyes narrowed when he saw one particular blonde seemed to be focusing on something other than himself, something that was above his head.

Iruka gritted his teeth together and stopped himself from shouting. After all, he didn't have any proof… _yet_.

xxxxx

Naruto couldn't believe what the inchling had done.

Well, actually, yes he could believe what it'd done, but that didn't mean he wasn't surprised by the action. He'd noticed how the teacher had looked at him, and while it wasn't hostile, it also wasn't a particularly friendly look either. He didn't care much really, he had no reason to seek this guy's approval, and he already knew that he'd never please everyone. So long as the young teacher acted professionally, that would be enough for Naruto.

His blue eyes flickered around, and he had to hold back a low whistle. He hadn't expected to have so many clan children in his class. An Aburame, a Hyuuga, an Inuzuka, a Yamanaka, a Nara, an Akimichi, an Uchiha… those were just the ones he recognised, and who knew just how talented the civilian kids would end up being.

There were more clans in Konoha, the Sarutobi, the Kurama, the Hatake (what little of it was left), and more that Naruto couldn't think of. Heck, he was an Uzumaki himself, and while that was a clan of Uzushio rather than Konoha, it was still a name to be somewhat proud of.

Maybe his Academy years would turn out to be pretty interesting after all.


	22. Massacre

Okay, a few things. First, sorry for the delay. I know saying 'real life' really doesn't cut it, but it exists, and it is something all of us have to deal with. Sometimes, it just gets in the way of what we want to do. Second, I'm sure some people will be surprised by how I handle things in this chapter and the next. Let's just say that I have plans and leave it at that. Also, Naruto is not over-powered, believe me. He has skills and quite the repertoire of abilities, but he is currently only really at genin level, and nowhere near genin the likes of Lee or Neji, both of whom would wipe the floor with him. Third... I'm not really sure what to do with Kaguya. What do you guys think? Should I make her a human who gained power? Or should I follow Naruto lore and make her an actual alien with all that entails?

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 22 - Massacre

"How does this keep happening?" Iruka grumbled, rubbing his face with one hand.

"It's the fox kid, Iruka, it _has_ to be." Mizuki growled back from his hospital bed. "I mean, come on! Anyone who even looks twice at the brat ends up having an 'accident', that can't be a coincidence!"

"That's impossible, Mizuki." Iruka sighed. "Uzumaki was seen in the library when that sign fell on you, and he'd been nowhere near that part of Konoha all day."

Mizuki grumbled as he rubbed at his broken shoulder. Earlier that day, he'd been walking past one of the bars in the village, heading home from work, and the sign just so 'happened' to come loose while he was directly underneath it. He was damned lucky the thing hadn't cracked his skull open!

"Maybe he's got little demon minions or something doing all the work for him." Mizuki grumbled, glaring out of the window.

Iruka's eyes followed his, and he sighed upon seeing a butterfly on the window ledge outside the room. "Come on, Mizuki, even I could tell you that there's no way a demon would ever look like a butterfly." He shook his head. "If there was a horde of foxes attacking people left, right, and centre, _then_ I might believe he's actually to blame for this stuff."

"You've gotta admit though, there's something really weird about that butterfly that sits on his hat all day." Mizuki retorted. "That's not normal for a butterfly, and it even manages to dodge the kunai and shuriken I throw at it for goodness sake!"

Iruka had to admit that Mizuki had a point. Beside the fact that anyone who spoke ill of the blonde child wound up hurt or sick, that butterfly truly was a weird one. Iruka had heard about nin-animals, things like dogs, cats, weasels, even rabbits and bees! A butterfly though… well, there wasn't anything particularly intimidating about butterflies, and they weren't exactly apex predators of the bug world either.

That didn't mean such a thing was impossible though, and given how little he knew about the Uzumaki, he wasn't discounting the thought out of hand.

"Well I do have my own theories about that butterfly." An old voice from the doorway spoke up, making the two chunin stand at attention as they recognised it immediately.

"Lord Hokage!" Iruka stood as straight as he could. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Calm down, Iruka, no need to stand at attention." The Hokage calmed the scarred man. "Though why wouldn't I be here? In the past few months, a fair number of my villagers have ended up in this very hospital for a variety of reasons, though they all share a single common factor."

"Naruto Uzumaki." Iruka breathed. "Everyone who's been hurt has spoken… less than fondly about him." He said awkwardly.

"Very true." The Hokage agreed with a nod. "While I may think of Naruto as a precious child and the warden to that damnable fox, I am fully aware that not everyone shares my sentiments, and as I both can't and won't resort to mass mind control, I have to accept that. However, this is getting out of hand."

"Lord Hokage, Uzumaki has been part of the village for years now." Iruka stated. "Why is it only just recently that these… 'incidents' are occurring?"

"And what did you mean about 'theories'?" Mizuki added.

"Hmm, two very good questions there, and the only answers I can give are guesses." The Hokage admitted. "For Iruka's question, it is likely because Naruto is only now becoming part of the village. His home lies in the forests outside of Konoha, and the civilian school he attended was near the edge as well. When he wasn't at home or school, he was in the library. Now though, Naruto actually has to walk through most of the village to get to the academy, and as such is far more visible. Given that the 'accidents' seem targeted at those who dislike Naruto, it only makes sense that there'll be more targets if more people are reacting negatively towards him.

"As for the butterfly… well, it's possible that Naruto somehow found out how to summon, and without a contract of his own, he ended up with the butterflies. While already existing and known contracts are rare, summoning is a rather well known art, and if one were to look hard enough, even a child should find out the hand seals necessary for summoning. Naruto could have found them on purpose, or he could have come across such information accidentally." Hiruzen shrugged, this theory being a bit weaker than the one regarding the incidents his villagers were suffering.

"Have you spoken to Uzumaki about any of this?" Iruka asked. "I had heard you were fond of him, Lord Hokage, but this cannot go on."

Hiruzen's eyes narrowed slightly at the scarred chunin. "I hope you're not implying that I would favour a single person so much as to ignore the injuries other villagers are suffering, chunin."

"N-not at all, lord Hokage!" Iruka gulped. "It's just… if you know what's going on, I don't see why you wouldn't have put a stop to it."

Hiruzen sighed. "I _don't_ know what's going on." He grumbled. "I've tried having Anbu trail Naruto, and he's never there when these 'accidents' happen, nor does he show any signs of planning them out or even being aware of them until after they've happened."

"So it's someone who really likes the br- child for some reason." Mizuki grumbled, quickly switching around his choice of words. While 'brat' wasn't something truly offensive, he _was_ supposed to be a teacher, and there were some standards that he was expected to meet.

Hiruzen shook his head. "Who could really have that amount of skill?" He asked. "It would take one of our village's elites to do this and get away without a single sign of them being there, and I've even gone over the likely suspects myself. It's not them."

The Hokage sighed, remembering how he'd kept tabs on some of those he'd deemed most likely to do this. Kakashi, because Naruto was his sensei's son. Anko, because he was an outcast like she was. Mikoto Uchiha, because she had once been a good friend of Kushina's. Genma, Raido, and Iwashi, due to the three of them being the former Hokage Guard for Minato. Not a single one of them, nor a number of others he'd kept a close eye on, had anything at all to do with the rash of problems he'd had to deal with over the last few months.

It had gotten to the point where he'd even kept an eye on that civilian teacher that Naruto was fond of , Akiko Sumeragi, and while she seemed a lot closer to the blonde boy than a teacher really should be, there was nothing else that he could really glean from watching her through his crystal ball.

Well, that wasn't actually true, there was _one_ thing that he'd found out. Akiko could somehow find where Naruto's cabin was, despite whatever barrier technique was keeping him and everyone he sent that way from finding it. That, at least, showed that Naruto had one good friend, even if he'd prefer the blonde to choose friends of a more similar age to the boy himself, rather than someone who was almost old enough to be his mother.

Hiruzen hoped and prayed that the boy would get along with at least some of his classmates.

xxxxx

Later that evening, Benio was laid on the roof of Naruto's cabin. Beside here were several of the others, including Naruto himself and a good dozen or so inchlings. She was staring up at the moon in the sky, as was Naruto, and both of them were thinking about the same thing.

Kaguya Otsutsuki.

Kurama had come back today, bringing the bodies of a pair of C rank missing nin and a few D rank bandit bounties with him. He'd been absolutely covered in blood, but wore a broad grin on his face regardless. He hadn't been too pleased when Naruto told him to get clean though, the fox rather liked how horrifying the blood made him look, but Naruto made a threat that Kurama wasn't willing to take and washed himself up.

The threat? Naruto had said that if he didn't get clean, he'd tie pretty pink ribbons into his fur with two separate seals on them, one to stop them being removed and the other to self-repair any damage done to it. Knowing Naruto and his quickly growing skill with seals and talismans, it was a legitimate threat.

Still, that didn't manage to knock Kurama's mood down too much, and after the corpses had been stored away ready for them to be taken to the nearest bounty office when Naruto had some time to transform and flash over there, they'd settled down for a relaxing evening. Given the fox's good mood, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that he was quite willing to indulge them in 'story time' when Naruto had asked him for a slice of history that the fox had experienced himself.

He told them the tale of Kaguya Otsutsuki as he remembered it, though Isobu chimed in with several other versions of the story that he'd heard when he was young. Apparently people couldn't decide whether Kaguya was a princess, a noble girl, a foreigner from another land, or as one story had it 'from beyond the stars'.

What _was_ known was that Kaguya had apparently never actually been killed. Instead, she had been sealed into the centre of the moon, and her chakra – becoming what was known as the Juubi – was torn apart to create the nine current biju.

" **You know, the sage of six paths, Hagoromo Otsutsuki, once said that one day we would be a single being again, though not as we once were, and that we would be shown what true power was.** " Kurama, currently a bit larger than a horse said.

" **Do you think he was talking about Naruto?** " Isobu asked his 'brother'. " **He's different from most others we've met.** "

" **He's weird.** " Kurama snorted. " **But** … **there might actually be something special about him. Only time will tell.** "

"If you were to be brought back together again, would you reform the Juubi?" Benio asked curiously. "I can only imagine how dangerous it would be now given just how much time you've had to grow and improve since you were initially created."

" **Who knows?** " Kurama shrugged. " **I have no intention of giving up the life I have now for some ostensible possibility.** "

Naruto made a humming noise, drawing Benio's attention.

"The Juubi was split up to make the biju, but they've grown stronger since then… does that mean you could make the Juubi using a small portion of each biju's chakra?" He wondered aloud. "If so, and if Kaguya and the Juubi really are somehow intertwined with one another, could she be revived that way too?" He mused aloud.

Benio silently considered what Naruto had just said. Not for the actual _content_ , but how she imagined his thought processes worked. Aside from the perpetual questions 'why?' and 'how?' which seemed to motivate Naruto to learn things, there was also his morals and attitudes towards different beings to consider.

She knew, and couldn't help but smirk at the fact, that Naruto favoured the biju over the shinobi who had trapped and sealed them, and that his opinion on that matter wouldn't go over well with any ninja or civilian. He did have a particular dislike for Hashirama Senju and Minato Namikaze, despite one being the founder of Konoha, and the other his own father.

She wondered which side of the divide Naruto would fall on between Kaguya and her two sons, Hagoromo and Hamura. Already, he thought of the sage of six paths as a naive but well intentioned fool. Anyone could tell you that giving humans power, especially when they haven't grown into it, is going to be a rather bad idea, even if the thought of achieving piece through understanding was a pretty neat idea.

She kind of wanted to see what answer he would give as well, though he'd only do that once he knew a bit more about why she did what she did. After all, the stories that Isobu and Kurama could remember simply said that she went 'mad', with some claiming it was the shinju drove her to insanity while others said she was always that way, and it was simply jealousy and anger at her sons being born with chakra that triggered her rage.

It was a little strange really, hearing the biju tell stories even they were too young to know about directly, mainly because stories were told about the biju themselves these days. Even youkai told stories about them, as while there were a fair number of youkai who were around during that era, there were many more who were mere centuries old.

Suddenly, Kurama stood up, drawing everyone's attention to him as he stared off in the direction of Konoha. He then turned to Tsuyukami and asked him if there had been any odd reports from the youkai in the village lately.

"A few things here and there." Tsuyukami replied. "The Uchiha clan has become rather reserved and withdrawn from the rest of the village, even more so than in recent years. There's something going on with the heiress of the Kurama clan. Those are the two main things I've heard about recently, aside from those 'ROOT' ninja. Is there a problem?"

" **You know about my negative emotion sensing ability, right?** " Everyone nodded at Kurama, having been told about this ability before. It was his favourite way of tracking down the missing ninja he hunted. " **Well I just felt a rather massive flare of fear, anger, resentment, and hatred from that direction, and it's spreading fast.** "

"Really?" Naruto sat up. "Huh, I wonder what's going on over there."

" **Wanna go see?** " Kurama grinned at Naruto, his eyes gleaming as he imagined humans running about in terror like headless chickens. " **I think it's coming from where those bastard red eyes live.** " His grin broadened as he imagined what was currently happening to the Uchiha.

Naruto considered it for a moment. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" He asked, frowning. "Something like that going on _inside_ a ninja village is probably a sign of something dangerous occurring."

" **Naruto,** **think about it this way; Something big is going down right now, and if you ever want to leave this damnable village for good, you'll want every bit of leverage you can get over them.** **A bit of blackmail on the Uchiha clan, one of the two largest clans of the village, will surely go a long way to helping you out, no?** " Kurama tried to convince him.

The blonde frowned. "Kurama, the Uchiha clan alone is larger than a number of smaller ninja villages are. If something is going on there that they can't handle… it's going to be big, and probably something way beyond me."

" **All the more reason to go then!** " Kurama exclaimed. " **You don't want to remain ignorant of something powerful, do you?** **Something that might end up being used against you?** "

"What do you guys think?" Naruto asked the rest of the youkai present.

Tsuyukami was the first to answer.

"It's a risk." He said. "Like all things in life, and so you should try and balance the scales out. How confident are you that you can remain unnoticed by the humans? What might you gain by doing this? What might you lose?"

"That was completely unhelpful." Benio commented dryly, before giving her own opinion. "I say go for it. As long as you're careful and have us with you, the risk is, if not eliminated, at least minimised. If you _do_ come across something dangerous, just drop several stacks of shikigami and flash out of there with hirenkyaku while your shiki delay them. Not the neatest or most elegant solution, but it's better than nothing."

"We'll follow Lord Naruto wherever he goes!" One of the inchlings squeaked, flourishing a sword that was about six inches long, which was actually bigger than the youkai himself was.

Naruto sighed. "Fine, I'll go. Give me a moment to pack a few things, just in case." The blonde than went indoors and grabbed a few things that he might need, but hoped he wouldn't. He strapped a pair of samurai-esque bracers to his arms and a pair of greaves were strapped to his legs.

The armour and his clothes had all been enhanced by his burgeoning skills in fuinjutsu, making them a bit tougher than normal, though by no means indestructible. The tougher he tried to make something, the more difficult the talisman became and the more power it required. He was working on what he called 'reactive armour' that would only activate when hit, but he was nowhere near skilled enough to do something like that, not yet at least.

After checking that he had his bow shiki strapped to his left wrist, Naruto then knelt outside on the bare earth and _pulled_. The earth came with his hand, shifting itself into the form he wanted it to be, compressing itself and making it denser and tougher than simple earth. He did this a second time, and once he declared himself ready, it could be seen that he'd moulded the earth into the forms of a tower shield and yari spear.

" **You look like you're ready for war.** " Kurama commented upon seeing Naruto's attire. " **I don't think I've seen a shinobi wear so much armour since the warring clans era.** "

"You mean back when samurai were more widespread than they are now?" Naruto asked as Kurama lowered himself a little so that the blonde could climb onto his back more easily. "It's strange how in less than a century hidden villages have now become the 'standard' and samurai rarely leave Iron Country."

Kurama didn't offer a reply to his vessel, instead choosing to run through the forest towards where the negative emotions were still coming from. He didn't worry about Naruto falling off his back, as aside from sticking himself there with a variant of the tree walking exercise, this wasn't the first time Naruto had rode Kurama like a steed, even if it was only done rarely.

It was actually an effective tactic they'd used against a particularly large bandit camp. Kurama charging directly into the group before bathing them with his fire breath, which was only enhanced when Naruto added some wind to it. Kurama then tore the bandits apart with his jaws and claws, with Naruto impaling the bandits on lightning arrows rained down on them from his position on the fox's back.

Kurama was actually contemplating trying to either copy or emulate one of the ninja clone techniques he'd seen in the past. With how he _was_ chakra, he could likely create tens of thousands, possibly even millions, of clones without unduly draining himself, and the amount of damage that many copies of Kurama could do… well, let's just say that if any ninjas found out about it, they would probably suffer a heart attack in fear.

Madara pulled up alongside Kurama, easily keeping pace with the biju. On Madara's back were several of the youkai that Naruto had befriended over the years, and a swarm of inchlings hung in the air around them as well. Naruto couldn't help but laugh a little, wondering just how ridiculous he must look right then to anyone with the sight.

An armed and armoured child sat astride a large, multi-tailed orange fox, with another canine, this one white, running by its side with several relatively human looking beings on its back. This was not even counting the dozens upon dozens of tiny people flitting about above and around them.

"The stench of human blood is getting stronger." Madara commented, causing Naruto to sniff at the air as well. While he didn't have the same level as smell as Madara or similar beast type youkai, or even the nose of an Inuzuka, his sense of smell was still sharp, and after a moment he began to pick up on the coppery tang of relatively fresh blood as well.

"This… isn't good." Naruto murmured. "It's too quiet for this to be anything other than assassination, and one done by a professional at that." He frowned. "Not to mention just how big the Uchiha clan is, _someone_ must be able to sense this."

Naruto dismounted from Kurama and let his spear and shield crumble away. Reaching into an inside pocket on his coat, he pulled out a number of falcon shiki before tossing them into the air and activating them. With a shriek, the pure black birds flew straight up into air and began to spread out towards the Uchiha district.

The youkai were silent while Naruto knelt down and closed his eyes, synchronising with one of the birds and looking through its 'eyes'. His short stint of scouting didn't last long, as he soon jerked slightly and took several deep breaths, getting used to his own body once again.

One of the falcon shiki flew down to the group and landed on Naruto's shoulder. The blonde boy reached for _another_ pocket and pulled out a pencil and a notepad, promptly ripping a piece of it out and giving it to the falcon, which bit down on it with its beak before flying off.

"Not everyone's dead." Naruto said. "Let's move, see if we can keep _everyone_ from dying."

Madara and Kurama shared a look at the tone of voice that Naruto used. He sounded incredibly serious, and more than a little disturbed as well. Of course, though neither of the two would admit it out loud, both felt some degree of fondness and loyalty to Naruto, and so that's why neither of them thought twice before following the blonde into the Uchiha district.

xxxxx

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" Hiruzen roared, his grandfatherly demeanour completely torn away by his fury.

"What was necessary, Hiruzen." Danzo replied evenly. "Your attempts at peacefully coming to a solution have failed, and I did what you couldn't bring yourself to do. The Uchiha will soon be dead, if they aren't already, and a threat to this village will have been eliminated."

"Genocide is your solution?" Hiruzen yelled in disbelief. "The Uchiha clan makes up a sizeable percentage of this village's population, and _all_ of its police force. We _cannot_ simply write off that many lives, that alone will cripple Konoha."

"And their coup _won't_ do even more damage?" Danzo retorted. "That clan is nothing but greedy, over-ambitious fools. Their attempts at taking over would never have worked, and in the process they would have _destroyed_ Konoha. Losing a clan that large is hard, but we would have lost even more if they had gone through with their plan. Like a cancer, they needed to be removed before they engulfed the entire village in their scheming."

"Hiruzen! Danzo!" Koharu snapped at the two of them. "What's done is done. Now, rather than squabbling over the past, maybe we should start thinking about building for the future. If we are going to recover from the loss of the Uchiha clan, then we are going to need a new police system. Perhaps the Anbu could handle that, goodness knows there are enough of them, and not all of them are up to the task of higher ranked mission."

Hiruzen was about to let loose a scathing retort, but stopped as a purely black bird flew into the room. He could immediately tell that this was no natural bird and the result of a technique of some sort, the fact it looked like an oily mass rather than a true bird only made that more apparent.

He saw it had something clamped in its beak, which it dropped towards them. Hiruzen snatched it out of the air with several chakra strings and opened it a distance away, just in case this was another assassination attempt on his life. It wasn't the first time he'd almost been killed, though he had managed to make a joke out of it when someone had managed to slip a large stack of explosive tags into his paperwork one time.

When nothing happened immediately, Hiruzen brought the paper closer, seeing as it had something written on it. It took him only a moment to read the thing, and when he did, his face took on the colour of old porridge and his hand shook slightly.

"Naruto." He murmured.

"Naruto!" He yelled, louder this time, before sprinting out of the room, only staying long enough to yell at Homura, Koharu, and Danzo. "He's at the Uchiha district! If he dies tonight because of you, I'll execute the lot of you myself!"

Danzo frowned as Hiruzen disappeared and considered sending several root ninja to protect the Jinchuuriki, before he dismissed the thought.

While the boy was a useful resource with immense potential, both due to what he contained and his heritage, he was also beyond Danzo's grasp. Besides, by the time he managed to send some of his own personal ninja to the Uchiha district, it would all be over, and the boy would either be alive or dead.

xxxxx

The Hokage running full pelt through the village late in the evening was bound to garner attention, and it most definitely did. Ninja who were roof hopping to get about the place saw this, and correctly believing that something big was happening, followed after their leader.

As the Uchiha clan lived quite far away from the Hokage tower, where Hiruzen had met with his advisors, he ended up with quite the following by the time he got to his destination. Dozens of Anbu, jonin, and chunin had followed their kage to the Uchiha district, and every single one of them were brought up short by the strong scent of blood that the wind carried their way.

A quick poke around at the entrance had the corpses of two guards being pulled out into the open, causing murmurings to rise from the ninja present.

"Split up into teams and search for survivors." Hiruzen barked. "Keep an eye out for Naruto Uzumaki as well, it is only because of his message I found out about this. He is _not_ to be harmed, or so help me I'll skin the flesh from your bones and seal you in a barrel of salt, kept alive until I feel merciful enough to roast what's left."

The ninja immediately did as they were told. This was not the kind, old man many of them, especially the younger amongst them, knew of. No, this was the man who had lived through three shinobi wars and survived all of them. This was a man who was so skilled that he had learned more techniques than several dozen other ninjas combined. This was the man who had fought and bled until he had become the ruler of this village, and had lived long enough to retire from that prestigious position.

Without waiting to hear an answer from his soldiers, Hiruzen hurried off into the nightmarish place filled with Uchiha corpses. He did see, in the air above the district, what appeared to be birds, falcons, and he thought that at least some of them might be the same as the one that had delivered that message to him.

"Be safe, Naruto." He muttered to himself.

xxxxx

"Dammit, we've lost this one as well." Hinoe growled, getting to her feet and ignoring her blood-stained hands.

"There's more here that might survive." Naruto patted her shoulder. "And at least we've managed to stabilise a few of them so far."

What the blonde said was the truth. While the inchlings had spread out throughout the Uchiha district, Hinoe and the few other youkai who had even a basic grasp of first aid, even if that was simply bandaging wounds, had set to work stabilising as many of the downed Uchiha as they could.

Unfortunately, that wasn't many. Whoever had done this was skilled, very skilled. However, there were simply so many Uchiha that there were a handful who were lucky enough not to take an instant death blow, and with immediate medical attention, a small fraction of that small percentage now had a chance at surviving this ordeal.

"Nobu!" Naruto called out to one of the inchlings. "Any sign of who did all this?"

"Not yet, Lord Naruto!" The diminutive being replied. "We believe they're indoors though, and we have a likely location as for where that is." He pointed deeper into the Uchiha district. "The largest house has yet to be searched, and all of this death and destruction seems to be leading that way."

"Madara, Kurama, let's go!" Naruto called out. Isobu, who had shed his talisman body, fed the blonde some of his chakra from within the seal, making him faster, stronger, and tougher. If he came across whoever had done all of this, he would need every edge he could get his hands on, and Isobu was willing to be a chakra battery if it kept Naruto alive and in one piece.

Several flashes of blue light, caused by his hirenkyaku, later had Naruto stood before the clan head's home. He was just about to enter the building, before a slight flare of smoke caught his attention, making Naruto ready his bow and put an arrow of lightning to the string.

"Naruto!" Hiruzen called out, before freezing in place.

Standing in front of the Hokage was a young blonde boy decked out in pieces of armour with a black bow in his hand – which looked to be made of the same material as the birds he'd seen – that had an arrow of condensed lightning on it, ready to be released.

Beside the blonde stood a large, orange fox, bigger than a horse, that had several tails waving behind it. The fox… was partially crouched and ready to pounce, but not at Naruto. No, it looked like it was… defending him?

A scream from within the house drew their attention, and both rushed inside.

This could not be ignored though, oh no.

Once this was over, Hiruzen had a number of questions ready for Naruto, and he wanted answers.


	23. Some Discussion

AN: Okay, I got this out sooner than expected. Now, I'm sure there's pretty much three camps of people out there. There's those that want Naruto to tell Hiruzen everything, there's those that want him to hide all he can, and then there's those who want him to share some things while keeping more important stuff closer to his chest. As it so happens, I agree with the third opinion. Obviously, he can't hide everything, but that doesn't mean he's going to spill the beans regarding the youkai and the like, and not even elaborate on exactly what he can do if he thinks creatively. I hope this works out well, but why don't you readers let me know how I did?

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 23 – Some Discussion

Hiruzen wasn't surprised when the kyuubi didn't follow him and Naruto inside, the entrance simply wasn't large enough for the fox to fit. He _was_ surprised when the eye he was keeping on it saw it vanish. A half-second later had Naruto tossing what looked to be an explosive note in front of himself, only for said tag to be consumed in red chakra which quickly took the form of a larger than normal fox. At least this one could be mistaken for a real fox, unlike it's larger form… and was that a blindfold on the fox's face?

"Naruto?" Hiruzen murmured, seeing the blonde also wrap a strip of cloth over his eyes.

The blonde glanced at the Hokage but didn't speak, he didn't need to. Hiruzen felt Naruto's chakra, as odd as it seemed to his senses, diffuse throughout the area, like a thin mist, the basis of a number of chakra detection techniques the old Hokage knew. To think that Naruto would be at the point where he could possibly fight without sight already…

Hiruzen almost followed Naruto as the boy didn't even think about which turn to take. If he felt for it himself, Hiruzen could also feel the suppressed chakra signature of Itachi, but it almost seemed like Naruto was tracking… something else entirely.

It only took a few moments for the two of them to break into the room to see Itachi stood over his parents' corpses, his sword impaled through his mother Mikoto and keeping her propped up. Crumpled on the floor in the doorway was Sasuke, Itachi's brother.

Immediately upon entering the room, Hiruzen stepped forward and covered Naruto, who took one knee to check Sasuke's vital signs. The blindfolded kyuubi also took up a position in front of Naruto and prepared to breathe a tornado of flames at the older Uchiha.

"This is too much Itachi." Hiruzen gritted his teeth. "I don't know what Danzo told you, but-"

"Danzo has nothing to do with this, Lord Hokage." Itachi interrupted him in a flat voice, though the tears streaming down his face fooled no one. "I did this to test myself. It seems I am truly the strongest Uchiha of the village, but I know that in my current state, I am no match for you, even if you are defending a child."

Itachi glanced at Naruto, before looking at Kurama's small form. "Surprising, I did not know the fourth's legacy had an affinity for foxes. I was not aware the previous one did."

"Itachi, stop this now!" Hiruzen ordered the teenager. "Put down your sword and come peacefully."

"I cannot do that, Lord Hokage, my future lies outside of this village." Itachi told him. "Even if I did stay, all I would be granted would be an execution for my actions, and I refuse to submit myself to that."

"Ita-" Hiruzen began, but the Uchiha body flickered out of the room, smashing through the window as he did so.

The Hokage didn't follow him, already knowing where he was off to. Danzo had already told him that Itachi, now a missing ninja, would be useful as a spy, both in general and, more specifically, in this fledgling 'Akatsuki' organisation he'd been hearing quiet rumours about.

"Naruto, what can you tell me about Sasuke?" The Hokage turned to the boy, who had now moved onto checking the bodies of Mikoto and Fugaku Uchiha. The old man's tone was serious, and the only reason he wasn't demanding answers about the fox and his display of skill was because the current problem needed his attention right now.

"Sasuke is in a coma, and it seems to be caused by neither poison nor blunt impact. At a guess, I'd say it's a genjutsu of some sort that's keeping him under. There's nothing I can do about that myself, my chakra is mildly toxic to other people and I don't want to damage his brain." Naruto replied, equally as serious as Hiruzen.

"An entire clan..." The Hokage murmured. "All dead." A tear leaked from his eye as he thought of the price paid for the foolish ambitions of only a portion of the Uchiha clan.

"Not all of them." Naruto corrected the Hokage. "I managed to stabilise a few of them that were still alive on my way through."

"How many?" The Hokage demanded. "And where are they?"

"Not many, maybe a dozen, two dozen at most." Naruto told him. "They're off towards the edge of the district, under the guard of some of my shikigami."

"We'll be having words about what you've been hiding from me." Hiruzen sternly said. "But for now, take me there, I need to see these survivors myself."

xxxxx

A man in an orange mask, Tobi as he referred to himself, watched from the shadows as the kyuubi jinchuuriki led the Hokage to the few survivors that were left of the once great Uchiha clan. He considered revealing himself and fighting the old man, but thought better of it.

While he was powerful, and the mangekyou sharingan gave him strange abilities, Hiruzen Sarutobi wasn't known as the god of shinobi for no reason. If all else failed, Tobi was fairly certain that the Sandaime would resort to the shiki fuujin, and as he didn't really have much of an understanding of how the technique really worked, he didn't know if he could survive such a thing.

Besides, what did he care if a few Uchiha survived this massacre? It wasn't like he'd gone out of his way to kill them, it was _Itachi_ who'd asked for _his_ assistance, not the other way around. Losing _almost_ an entire clan would strike a blow against Konoha's reputation at least, and Tobi despised Konoha. In his eyes, the village had failed _her_ , and they would all suffer before the new, peaceful world was brought about, a world where he could see _her_ again.

An itch developed at the base of Tobi's neck, letting him know that someone was watching him. Looking around, however, he failed to see anyone at all that was coming his way. Still, this itch persisted, and knowing it was unwise to linger here overly long, he quickly took his leave.

He had other things to do if he wished to see his perfect world become a reality.

xxxxx

Yugao Uzuki, kunoichi of Konoha and the one behind the cat Anbu mask, was one of those who had seen her kage racing through the village, and while she'd just returned from a mission and wanted to get some rest, she could tell something big was happening. With this in mind, she hurried after the elderly village leader and was one of the first to see the slaughtered Uchiha.

Obeying her superior's commands, she searched through the district for survivors, but found none. Some of them, she could tell, had been dead for minutes, if that, and some were suffering wounds too severe for anything but totally immediate medical care from an expert to survive.

Some she saw die mere moments before she got to them.

Once she had searched 'her' section of the Uchiha district, and seeing the ones around her already being searched, she took off looking for her Hokage to report. She found him, surprisingly, stood with the village's jinchuuriki, Naruto, along with several dozen strange creatures that looked like they were made out of oil, some of them equipped with a tower shield and spear with a short sword sheathed at their side, and others equipped with one of two types of crossbow. A dozen large wolves, seemingly composed of the same material, were amongst them as well.

"Cat." The Hokage called out upon seeing her. "Come here."

She did as instructed.

"I want you to escort Naruto here back to his home while I handle things here." He told her. "Stick close to him and wait for my arrival." He turned to Naruto. "I trust that I will be _able_ to find you at home?" He asked.

"When you're close, I can come and take you through the barrier." Naruto replied.

"That will have to do for now." Hiruzen conceded. "Now go, off with you."

Yugao, not knowing where Naruto lived, just that it was somewhere in the forest surrounding the village, looked towards the boy. Seemingly aware of what she was asking, the blonde began to head off in the direction she assumed his home to be. She did think it strange that the cute fox went with them though, and even more so that it was keeping up with genin level speed.

She stuck quite close to the boy as he headed into the trees and began to hop through them like most ninja do when they have appropriate terrain, whether that be forests or roofs of buildings. However, as they got steadily farther away from the village, Yugao felt a shiver run down her spine.

She could feel many eyes on her, watching her from all directions. Leaves rustled like they were disturbed by something moving through them, and she could swear that she heard quiet whispers carried on the night breeze. Several times she could have sworn she saw a pair of eyes looking at her, and once even a set of three eyes.

She endured what felt like hours of this, but was in reality more likely less than ten minutes. At this point, Naruto caught her hand in his, and remembering what he'd said to the Hokage about a barrier, didn't pull away from the young boy and allowed herself to be pulled through whatever barrier was between them and Naruto's home.

When she saw where Naruto lived, she couldn't help but pause at the sight.

In short, it was beautiful.

Even under moonlight, everything was clearly visible. There was a rather nice looking wooden cabin with what looked like a fire pit in front of it. Beside and behind the cabin was a reasonable sized field, maybe half an acre in size, and she could see a number of vegetables, berry bushes, and so on growing there quite well. Off to one side, she could even see what looked to be a few beehives amongst a small gathering of fruit trees.

To the other side of the cabin, through the trees, she could see the moonlight glimmering off what seemed to be a lake of some description, and that wasn't all there was to see around there. On the other side of the fire pit across from the cabin was some sort of strange hybrid of beehive and doll house that was hidden just inside the tree line, and there were a couple of other small things here and there as well. There were several rudimentary carved chairs, a bench, and an outdoor table as well.

"You look quite self-sufficient." Yugao commented, earning her a surprised look from Naruto. "What, did you expect me to be some sort of silent sentinel?"

"I suppose not." Naruto replied, though he honestly _was_ surprised that she chose to speak.

Yugao snorted. "We Anbu are people behind our masks too." She told him, before seeing the curious look on Naruto's face. "What?"

"You sounded like an old person just then, but you don't look like you're out of your teens yet, early twenties at the oldest." Naruto told her. Even though he couldn't see her face, he could see her body shape and height. Also, despite her voice being scrambled, it still sounded youthful.

"I appreciate the compliment." Yugao said. "I've worn this mask for years though, so I believe I've earned the right to speak like that."

"You must have joined young then." Naruto murmured. "Then again… you would be part of the generation rushed through the Ninja Academy to make up for those lost in the war."

"Enough about me, how about we talk about you?" Yugao turned the conversation around on the blonde. "What were you doing at the Uchiha district during tonight's incident? It seems a little odd for you to be wandering around that area by yourself."

"I make poultices, creams, and things like that out of herbs and stuff. I was out collecting fresh ingredients when I smelled blood and went to see what it was." Naruto explained "When I saw all of the dead bodies I sent a message to the old man and did what I could to stabilise the ones still alive."

"You make basic medicine, do you?" Yugao asked sceptically.

"Teas and tisanes too." Naruto nodded. "You can try some if you want."

"I believe I will." Yugao agreed. "It will likely be several hours before Lord Hokage is done with sorting this out, so we might as well get comfortable."

Naruto grinned at her, before disappearing inside the cabin. While he was gone, Yugao gave everything another quick look. She could swear that there were still _things_ looking at her, evaluating her… and warning her. She got the feeling that if Naruto was safe anywhere, here is where the advantages would all be his. Even the fox that had come back with them seemed to be judging her.

"I've got the kettle here!" Naruto called as he came back outside with said copper kettle in one hand – already filled with water – and two cups in the other hand – each of which had a small gauze pouch of herbs in it. He quickly set the kettle up over the fire pit, conjuring up some sort of fist-sized, self sustaining fireball in one hand which he put underneath it.

Yugao looked curiously at the technique, and decided to ask Naruto about it, especially as she hadn't seen him use any hand signs before casting it.

"Hand signs feel weird to me." Naruto said. "We were shown them in the academy, and were told how they shape chakra, but it just feels really wrong when I try to use them and I can't get them to work. Instead, I do things my way. While it's really hard to do anything really big, I can pretty much do whatever I want with the elements I can control.

For a demonstration, Naruto created a snake of lightning that wound itself around his body. The snake was only about the size of a jo staff, a shade longer than four feet, but keeping it in shape and moving it was clearly taking quite a bit of concentration from Naruto. He was much better with arrows, as all he had to do was make a straight 'stick' of lightning and release it in a single direction. Fine control, especially of something as flexible and winding as a snake was far more difficult, as was making it actually _look_ like a snake rather than just a stream of blue-white lightning.

"That's… surprising." Yugao commented. "I can sense your reserves from here, and while they feel weird, they also feel massive. Usually, having that much chakra means you have comparatively low control over it. It's usually only medics and the absolute best of genjutsu specialists that have control like that."

"My control's not _that_ good." Naruto protested. "I've just practised with elemental stuff a lot."

"So, what else can you do?" Yugao catiously prodded.

"A few things really." Naruto told her. "But I'm not spilling all of my secrets to a stranger, Anbu or not."

"Really?" Yugao pushed. "What if I told you I am rather good with a sword? In fact, I'm learning under the best swordsman in Konoha."

"Huh, I've tried a sword, it just feels weird in my hands. I prefer a spear or claws for close up, but I'm much better at archery than close range." Naruto replied.

"Unusual weapons, all three of them." Yugao mused. "Most ninja rely on kunai and shuriken, with a few going for senbon. After that, most ninja go for swords, though there's a small number that like staffs. I know Lord Hokage is supposed to be very good with a staff."

Naruto shrugged, not at all sure what to say to the surprisingly chatty Anbu woman.

"How about a small spar after this, you with a spear versus me with a sword." She saw Naruto's eyes widen and smirked behind her mask. "Only as a spar of course, and after this tisane of yours."

Naruto, seeing the kettle had boiled, served the two of them some tea. Yugao, when she had a cup in her hands, surreptitiously cycled a small amount of medical chakra through the contents. Only when she saw there were no poisons or anything in there did she drink it, slipping her mask to the side just enough for the cup to reach her mouth. It wasn't that she thought Naruto would purposefully poison her, but there was no guarantee that what was fine for a jinchuuriki would be fine for a normal person, and there was also the chance that Naruto didn't actually know what he was doing when making these tisanes.

To her surprise, she found the tea to be rather good. There was a sharp, minty taste to it, and something else that she couldn't quite identify that made her feel wide awake and refreshed despite the late hour. She wondered if Naruto would mind giving her some to take with her, Hayate would probably like it, as would Kurenai, Anko, and the others.

"Naruto, how much of this tea do you make?" She asked as casually as she could.

"Loads." He replied. "I experiment with different mixes so I've got plenty in the cupboards, though some work better than others." He grimaced, remembering some of the nastier tisanes he'd made and promptly thrown out.

"Could I have a few samples, please?" She asked politely, and Naruto just knew that if her mask wasn't in the way she would be batting her eyelids at him in a caricature of a schoolgirl trying to get her own way.

"Sure. Like I said, I've got more than I can ever drink myself." He nodded, not mentioning that there were surprisingly few youkai that liked tea as much as he did, and most of them were content with plain water or sake from their springs.

"Right!" Yugao cheerily bounced to her feet, which was actually kind of creepy with that mask over her face. "Now, how about that spar?"

Naruto just sighed, placing his empty cup to the side and creating a yari spear and tower shield out of the earth once again.

xxxxx

Yugao watched as the compressed earth shield somehow formed itself over and around the bracer on Naruto's left forearm, the bracer itself acting like a strap for the shield. Once that was done, Naruto grabbed the spear with an underarm grip and turned sideways on to her, moving several yards away from anything that might end up damaged in this spar.

Intrigued, Yugao drew her sword and settled herself into a relaxed stance, not overly concerned about this spar. While she wouldn't call herself arrogant, she knew she was highly skilled, and Naruto _was_ only an eight year old academy student. If this was a ninjutsu fight, she'd be worried, the blonde's chakra levels felt about as large as a damn biju's, even if it wasn't as potent. In a melee fight, however, there was only so much a child could do, even if they trained hard enough to stunt their growth.

Naruto, not letting the cat-masked Anbu set the pace of the spar, rapidly jabbed forward with his spear. Each strike was swatted aside with almost contemptuous ease. After one more failed strike, Naruto span the spear around and struck a blow with the butt of the spear… which was also parried with ease.

Naruto kept it up, striking towards her head, torso, and legs at random. Each time he did so, he took a small step forward, until he felt he was close enough, whereupon he tried to shove the Anbu with his shield.

Yugao simple stepped backwards and to the side, making Naruto stumble slightly when he encountered no resistance. This earned him a slight cut on his side courtesy of Yugao's sword.

"Don't commit yourself to an action like that, it'll only leave you open if it fails." She chided him.

Turning to face her once more, Naruto contemplated ways he could prove himself capable to this woman. He held no preconception regarding a victory over her, she was simply _far_ too fast, strong, and skilled for him to really scratch her, and if he did then it was only because she either let him or she was being stupidly careless.

What could he do though? If he resorted to his spells, then Yugao would likely start using jutsu in return. Any visible change, either through using biju chakra to boost himself or joining with a youkai, would provoke a response as well. Right now he was fighting on her terms, and he wasn't good enough to force things to his own speciality.

For her part, Yugao was mildly impressed with the blonde boy. While it wasn't particularly complex tactically, and he wasn't fighting with any real skill, the blonde was fighting intelligently. With that large shield and his greaves, there wasn't much of him exposed for her to stab or slash at, and she didn't know just how durable his armour and shield were. With the spear in his other hand, he was making many fast jabs at her, and while it was nothing compared to her own, his striking speed was higher than she expected it to be.

Comparing Naruto to others his age she'd seen around the village, he was clearly in the upper end of the scale. In fact, he seemed more like one of her generation and the one before, when the academy graduation age average was ten rather than the twelve it was now.

Oh, he wasn't anything spectacular, not right now, but in time he could become something great… or terrible. He had the potential for both of these after all.

She saw him inch closer to her, his left arm tensing in preparation to bash her with his shield once more. Allowing him to get close, she once more sideste- she dodged out of the way of a swipe from his spear.

Oh, he was sneaky, and he was obviously learning from his past mistakes. This time, the shield bash had been powered from his legs _and_ arms, but he'd had a wider stance, allowing him to avoid stumbling like he did before. She still gave him a long but shallow cut from her own blade in retaliation though.

She was amused by how he grit his teeth and twitched at her rather less than aggressive actions. She could tell he was refraining from using those elemental techniques of his, correctly guessing that she would also up the ante of their little spar if he did. There may also have been some consideration for not destroying his own home in there too considering how close they were to it.

Nevertheless, she was enjoying this mild work out.

Whoever said Anbu never had any fun was seriously wrong!

xxxxx

Rubbing tiredly at the bridge of his nose, Hiruzen started searching for the general area he knew Naruto's home to be in. He still didn't understand what sort of barrier technique kept it hidden, but he recognised at least that it was very effective against everyone the Hokage had sent up against it.

It was only a minute after he'd started stumbling around that Naruto had turned up himself to lead the older man towards his home, and like Yugao he also took a moment to drink in the beautiful scene that seemed like something straight out of a fantasy story.

He then took a look at the two occupants of the clearing that he could see.

Cat looked like she usually did, aside from the slight tells that he could recognise that told him she was slightly weary and could do with a good rest, if not a proper sleep. Naruto, on the other hand, looked somewhat sweaty and was covered in minor cuts and bruises which, if one looked at them long enough were obviously done with the thin edge of a blade.

"Cat?" The Hokage prompted her.

"A spar, Lord Hokage, nothing more." She replied professionally, none of her earlier more easy-going nature showing.

Hiruzen didn't say anything in reply to that. Instead, he looked around at Naruto's impressive little home – or hideaway a small part of his mind suggested – before taking a seat in one of the carved chairs next to the table. Instantly, Yugao stood at his shoulder.

"Come, Naruto, sit and talk with me." The old man said. "The Uchiha situation is as resolved as it's going to be any time soon, and there's time before I need to get to my office and the paperwork that awaits me."

Hiruzen watched as Naruto cautiously took a seat across the table from the Hokage, the fox silently accompanying him.

"Now, Naruto, as I'm fairly sure you are aware, even as the Hokage, I cannot demand the knowledge of anyone's personal techniques, clan or otherwise." He started, his mind flicking over several jutsu that he did not know himself, like Kakashi Hatake's chidori. "Still, perhaps you could give me an… overview of what you can do."

Naruto shuffled slightly, looking down. Hiruzen let him have a few moments to compose himself and patiently waited for the blonde to respond.

"I can do small scale elemental techniques." Naruto finally spoke, raising his hand as a fist sized ball of fire appeared hovering over his palm. "I can't do anything big, but I can do pretty much anything I can imagine with small amounts of each element."

"Impressive." The Hokage praised him. "It's not often that ninja consider practicality over power in their techniques, and I could name numerous ninja who have fallen prey to their own short-sightedness."

"I can also make several potions with several effects." Naruto then removed several vials from his belt. "I can make things like mild fortifying draughts and some basic healing concoctions, balms, ointment, creams, poultices and stuff. I've also been looking into poisons and antidotes."

"A very underrated set of skills." The Hokage commented. "Even I am not particularly well versed in healing techniques or poisons beyond the basics."

"The only other thing I can really do is fuinjutsu." Naruto shrugged. "My shikigami are preprepared talismans, and even my bow is a talisman too, though that's etched wood rather than paper."

"Fuinjutsu… perhaps the most mysterious of all known ninja skills." The Hokage told him. "It's said that if you can understand it then there is nothing you cannot do. It is the most flexible of all ninja skills, and the one which the least is understood."

Hiruzen sighed. "Is that everything you can do?" He asked.

Naruto nodded. "Everything I'm capable of stems from one of those three things." He confirmed.

"Now, let's move onto… that." The Hokage indicated the fox who was now sat on the table next to Naruto. Said fox glared at him for how the Hokage was referring to him, and Hiruzen wasn't particularly pleased to see Naruto's eyes narrow as well.

"Kur- Kyuubi has been with me since the day I was born, technically even before then, as I'm sure you're aware." Hiruzen immediately noticed the stumble over how he referred to the beast. Did the Kyuubi, perhaps, have a name? "He's not been released from the seal, if that's what you're worried about, he's possessing one of my shiki made specifically for him."

"Having the nine tails wander around so casually is dangerous, they were sealed up for a reason." Hiruzen warned Naruto, skipping over explanations completely as Naruto was obviously already aware of a number of things the Hokage hadn't been aware Naruto knew.

"Yeah, the first Hokage saw them as weapons or chakra batteries, not intelligent creatures." Naruto growled low in his throat. "He captured them and then gave them away like gifts, pets for the other villagers to use and abuse at their leisure."

"The biju _are_ dangerous, the kyuubi in particular has a violent history with Konoha." Hiruzen's voice grew more stern as he spoke, but Naruto was ready to bite back, and this was something he wasn't going to back down about.

"He has a history of slavery with humans." Naruto harshly shot back. "He was mind-fucked by Madara Uchiha and used as a weapon against Hashirama Senju. He was then trapped by Mito Senju nee Uzumaki and treated like a caged wild beast. He was then taken from one cage and put in another inside of Kushina Uzumaki, who treated him no better than her predecessor. He was then violently torn out of her and mind-fucked again by another Uchiha to, once again, be used as a weapon against Konoha.

"If you ask me, it's a surprise he hasn't snapped under all of that and is as well adjusted as he is." Naruto finished, attempting to keep himself calm and failing at it.

"So the accusations have some merit to them after all." The Hokage mumbled, mulling over what Naruto had let slip there, that it'd been an Uchiha who had been behind the Kyuubi attack eight years previously, and the one who had probably killed his wife Biwako.

"That doesn't change the fact that we have a reservoir of nigh unlimited chakra wandering around without any sort of safety precautions in place." Hiruzen snapped back to the conversation as painful memories of his dead wife surfaced in his mind.

"What do you think his body is?" Naruto retorted. "It's my shikigami, I can cancel the technique whenever I so please. Ku- The Kyuubi is completely reliant on me to make him a body, and I am the one who _allows_ him some freedom outside of the seal. Seeing as he has yet to even snarl at you, I think that shows remarkable restraint myself."

" **And don't tempt me, monkey man, I remember you whacking me in the face with that staff of yours, and while it was only mildly painful, it was humiliating. If I'd been in my right mind at the time, you and this entire village wouldn't even be a smoking crater right now.** " The fox spoke up, making both Hiruzen and Yugao stiffen at its voice.

"Not helping." Naruto dryly stated, giving the fox a look.

" **I'm just making a point.** " Kurama retorted. " **The** _ **only**_ **reasons I was initially buggered by this village was because they had things that seemed specifically designed to fuck me over! The mangekyo sharingan is already bullshit by itself, but the fucking wood release cancels out biju chakra as well! That's not even going into the whole 'seal that summons a death god' crap as well. That is something no one should have access to.** "

"Without any of those, you would have rampaged across the world and killed every living thing that existed." Hiruzen directly addressed the fox for the first time. "You are hatred given form, it is your nature."

" **Fuck you, asshole.** " Kurama growled at Hiruzen. " **I am** _ **not**_ **hatred incarnate, that's something that humans have called me, and only in the last century. Before that I was living peacefully enough on my own,** _ **away**_ **from your abhorrent species.** "

"Enough!" Naruto yelled when he saw the Hokage getting ready to verbally retaliate. "Can you please not hurl insults at each other? The long and short of it is; I know I'm a jinchuuriki, and Ku- Kyuubi has a body that's completely dependant on my good will. You've heard what techniques I can use, and what skills I have. Can I please just go to sleep for the night, it's late and I'm worn out with all of this Uchiha 'thing' as well."

Hiruzen paused, considering things. Noticing that Naruto did indeed look in need of sleep, and knowing that he should also prepare for the long day ahead, he rose from his seat and bid Naruto farewell. He did tell the blonde that this wouldn't be their last conversation though, and that they'd continue this later.

Once the Hokage and Anbu were past the barrier, the seal beneath the ground reactivated, allowing regular humans to see youkai. This didn't affect Naruto though as he could see them anyway, and Kurama could too because of their link. Now that they were 'alone' though, they could relax, and Minako almost instantly appeared with a soothing cup of tea in her hands ready for Naruto.

"Thank you." He said, before drinking the hot tea.

"It's a relaxing blend, I'm hoping it'll help you sleep tonight." The zashiki-warashi replied.

"A bit late for that, isn't it? It must be about three or four in the morning by now." Naruto muttered.

"Sleep, Naruto." Tsurara said, hugging him from behind. "We'll make sure you're up early enough in the morning."

Naruto let his eyelids grow heavy, though restful sleep would not find him that night. Already he could see flashes of blonde hair and hear disturbing giggles. It seemed his personal demon had come to disturb him in his sleep tonight.

xxxxx

"What can you tell me, Cat?" Hiruzen asked as they wandered back towards the village proper.

She immediately replied. "His home has some… unusual additions to it. Aside from everything I expected, there was far too much cutlery, plates, and cups for one person to really require, even with guests. Also, there are what looks to be personal items meant for females to use, brushes, hand mirrors and the like, which have seen recent use by someone other than Naruto.

"His combat potential is also rather high. While not prodigal, he is smart enough to learn from his mistakes and carry out simple plans and strategies. His skill with the spear and shield is higher than an average ninja, but nothing particularly special. His maturity and observation skills are better than his age would suggest, likely a product of living like he does." She finished her report.

Hiruzen sighed at having to use such underhand tactics to learn about someone he thought trusted him implicitly, but he couldn't ignore the feeling that Naruto, while he had told him the extent of his skills, hadn't told him everything, and was purposefully vague on his specific limitations.

He would get to that later though, right now he had to work out how to handle the situation back in the village.


	24. One Day Later

AN: Next chapter is here, yay! I have some plans for Naruto's Academy years, but I'm always open to suggestions. The only thing I have left for his first year is the Kurama clan thing, and that should only take two or three chapters at most. Anything you can suggest for his second year at the academy, hit me with them, and if anything in particular inspires me, I'll use it, 'kay?

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 24 – One Day Later

The next morning, Naruto made a detour on his way to the Academy, deciding to pass by the Uchiha district. There was no great reason for him doing this, he simply… decided to do it. Perhaps he wanted to see it in daylight, see what had happened to the place without the dark of night hiding it away.

He couldn't get very close though, there were Anbu patrolling the outside, most probably to keep curious people like himself out. Of course, just because he couldn't get in didn't mean he didn't notice certain things. One such 'thing' was a raw throated scream of despair.

"What the hell was that?!" Naruto hissed, his eyes darting around for the source. However… no one else seemed to even react to it at all.

" _It sounds like wailers."_ Benio, in butterfly form, murmured from her perch on his hat.

"What are wailers?" Naruto asked.

" _Dead humans."_ She said. _"Don't worry about them, they'll fade away in a few days, maybe a week or more."_

"They're… ghosts?" Naruto guessed.

" _Not quite."_ Benio corrected him. _"While yurei do exist, they're pretty rare, it's not often humans become youkai after all. Wailers are simply remnants that have clung to this world, either in despair, anger, or whatever else. Like I said though, they'll fade pretty quickly. Oh, and before you get any ideas, **don't** try and talk to them, they're not rational and will almost certainly attack you."_

Naruto flinched as he heard a despairing wail resound through the air, unheard by the humans who remained oblivious to the entire macabre horror, one that went deeper than just a body's physical remains. The discordant noise of screaming, wailing, and cries of fear and terror… and he was the only human who could hear it.

"This is… just so disturbing." Naruto murmured, before turning his back on it and quickly hurrying away. Unknown to the blonde, he hadn't gone unnoticed himself. The Anbu patrolling the perimeter to ensure no one just wandered into the Uchiha district had seen him, and more importantly, they had seen his half of the conversation with Benio.

xxxxx

In his office, Hiruzen held himself back from sighing with frustration.

Everything was a mess. In fact, it was probably more of a mess than it could otherwise be at all. If the Uchiha massacre hadn't happened, he wouldn't have to deal with all of this paperwork. If all of them had been wiped out, then he could have dealt with it in one mass. Instead, with almost a dozen survivors, he had to deal with it more carefully.

The hospital staff were doing their best to save the remaining Uchiha, as despite Naruto managing to stabilise a grand total of seventeen members of the clan, six of them had succumbed to their injuries since. The remaining eleven looked like they would live though, and if/when Sasuke came out of his coma, that would make for a grand total of twelve Uchiha from a clan that had previously numbered in the high hundreds.

The biggest problem for the Hokage was working out which ones might have known about the planned coup, and therefore which ones might work out the true reason behind Itachi's actions. If they learned of such a thing and the information was spread about, the village may just fall apart. After all, treason or not, annihilation of an entire clan was an extreme measure.

Sasuke, Hiruzen knew, wasn't aware of the massacre, and he doubted Marie, barely ten years old, knew of it either. The fresh genin, Tsubaki and Shirou Uchiha, were rather unlikely as well. However, Genma Uchiha, who was only two years younger than Hiruzen himself – retired due to loss of limbs and failing eyesight – might very well know about it, as could the five surviving chunin or the two jounin that remained.

On top of all of this, there was Naruto to consider too. Aside from being the one to discover the massacre and save as many as he did, there were two further things on the Hokage's mind. First off, there were the strange creatures that Naruto had created, his 'shikigami' that appeared to be some sort of fuinjutsu equivalent to solid clones, or at least used in a similar manner. He wanted to know where Naruto had learned that skill, and who might have taught him.

The other fact staring Hiruzen in the face was that Naruto obviously knew about the biju he contained. How could he not when he'd found a way for the fox to exist outside the seal? That worried Hiruzen, and it might have contributed to why he was so… 'snappy' with Naruto when they'd last spoken.

However, aside from having other things on his mind – primarily the Uchiha incident – Naruto had said some things that Hiruzen had reacted badly to. His tone as he referred to the first Hokage, Hiruzen's teacher whom he had a great deal of respect and admiration for, clearly indicated his low opinion of the man.

While Hiruzen was by no means fond of the kyuubi, and couldn't help but hold it responsible for many deaths and the threat it represented, he could have acted a little more diplomatically with it. Acting as antagonistic as he had seemed to only damage his relationship with Naruto, as the blonde had quite blatantly taken the fox's side against him.

That was not good. Naruto already lived outside of the village, even if his home wasn't too deep into the forest, and he barely had any connections to it. Every other potential ninja was either from a clan, in which case they were from a family loyal to the village, or a civilian that had grown up there, and therefore had at least some patriotism in them.

Perhaps he could change that. After all, Naruto was clearly capable of keeping a secret, and it was possible that he was already aware of his connections to… certain individuals. With that small hurdle out of the way, there may be a small handful of people who could connect to the young blonde.

"Crow, find Kakashi and bring him here. Retrieve Raido, Genma, and Iwashi as well." The Hokage instructed one of his ever present Anbu.

The Anbu flickered out of the room, leaving Hiruzen to try and recall who knew Minato and Kushina on a personal level. If he could get them to chat with the boy, maybe he would be able to reach out and not be such a social recluse. Of course, it would also help if he had some friends his own age or thereabout, but while he appeared to be on fairly good terms with his class in general, none of them stood out as being particularly close.

Maybe, if the younger Uchiha were cleared… perhaps they may be able to befriend the blonde.

xxxxx

Passing through a park on his way to the Academy, Naruto was glad of a distraction from the wails and screams still bouncing around in his head, though they now seemed to be accompanied by the giggling of his 'other' self, his personal demon.

Of course, what he was less than happy about was the nature of the distraction. A group of kids his own age were gathered together, quite obviously surrounding something, and when he asked one of the ever-present inchlings what they were grouped around, he found out that it was a girl in the middle of the group.

"Think you're so high and mighty, don't you?!" A plain looking girl with her nose in the air sniffed disdainfully. "Well, you're not! My daddy's a merchant, he makes _loads_ of money, and he doesn't just sit around all day doing nothing like you 'nobles' do."

Naruto didn't see what the other girl did in response, but he didn't catch a verbal response. He wondered who exactly it was in the middle of the group, as it sounded like it was a clan kid from what the girl had said. At least, he couldn't think of anyone else in the village who might be referred to as a 'noble', unless someone was visiting from the capital.

"What's going on?" Naruto called out aloud, making the group turn to him. Several of the kids looked at him curiously, though there were several that appeared fearful, most likely a product of whatever stories their parents had told them about the 'demon child'.

One of the kids at the edge of the group came over to Naruto.

"There's a pretty, rich girl from one of the clans here. Mio's bragging about how rich her dad is again, and when the girl didn't do anything, Mio got annoyed." He said. "She doesn't like being ignored."

"So she's bullying someone to make herself look bigger?" Naruto clarified, getting an uneasy look from the boy, but he did nod his head reluctantly.

"Mio thinks she's better than the rich kids because her daddy actually works for his money." The kid told him. "She says that the kids born to already rich parents are all just spoiled brats that need to learn what hard work really is."

Naruto took a look at this 'Mio' girl, and wondered if she was just repeating something her mother or father had told her. After all, she didn't _look_ that physically active, and she was wearing an ankle-length dress, not the most practical outfit for physical work.

Mio looked at Naruto and wasn't impressed with what she saw. His 'odd' clothes – duster coat and broad-brimmed hat – made him look foreign to her, so he was probably a visitor with his rich parents or something.

"What's it to you?" She asked him. "My daddy's the best merchant in Konoha, so there!"

Naruto, still with the wailing of the dead ringing in his ears, really didn't want to deal with this, so he chose one of the quicker methods of dealing with it.

"Does that matter?" He replied. "Rich or not, bullying is bullying, and if your dad is a merchant, surely he told you about making a good impression on customers? Don't you think you're being a bit rude?" He said, trying to work on her obvious affection for her father.

"She's just a rich girl who obviously gets whatever she wants. I'm just letting her know that not everyone is going to bow down to her because she's from a big clan." Mio retorted.

"And all of these guys around her? It looks like you're all bullying her… and I don't like bullies." Naruto began to raise what little killing intent he possessed and levelled it at the group. While it was nothing compared to what an average ninja could produce – and he wasn't going to borrow Kurama's KI to enhance his own – it was more than the kids were really prepared for, and they froze in shock at the feeling.

That didn't last long though, and they quickly fled from him.

Naruto sighed. That wasn't going to be doing his reputation any favours, but he didn't regret chasing them off the girl. Now, who was it that had been in the middle of all of that?

Looking where they'd been, Naruto was surprised to see someone he actually knew. Dark blue hair and pale eyes, it was the Hyuuga girl in his class, Hinata if he remembered her name right. She was a quiet and shy person who, while she answered Iruka's questions correctly when asked, didn't offer answers up herself.

"Hinata?" Naruto gave a sort of awkward wave hello. "Um, hey, so..." He trailed off, unsure what to really say.

"Ah, th-thank you, Naruto." She stuttered quietly.

"No problem." He replied. "I'm just surprised to see you by yourself, aren't you usually dropped off by one of the branch family?"

"M-most of the family was c-called out last night." She told him. "Ko was one of them, and I g-guess that they forgot to a-assign someone else to m-me."

Naruto nodded in understanding. The Hyuuga, Aburame, and Inuzuka were the three main tracking specialised clans in Konoha, and it sounded like there was an all out manhunt for Itachi already. Things didn't quite add up though, as Naruto clearly remembered the tears streaming down Itachi's face, not to mention the fact that Naruto clearly recalled treating injuries from two different types of blades.

"Um, d-do you want to w-walk to the a-academy together?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah, sure." Naruto agreed, falling into step beside the shy girl.

Hinata sent Naruto frequent glances as covertly as she could while they walked. He was her classmate, but she didn't really know very much about him. He got questions right when asked, and even volunteered answers every now and then, but he seemed a bit distant to everyone else, not shy so much… more like he didn't really know how to deal with people his own age.

Even now, he looked kind of awkward, like he didn't know what to say or do with her walking beside him. His eyes kept flickering about the place, pausing every now and then, before he appeared to look at something, something she couldn't see even when she discretely activated her byakugan.

"So… how are you enjoying the academy?" Naruto asked, for lack of anything else to say.

"It's good." Hinata replied. "I like l-learning new things, s-so I look forward t-to that." She tried to stop her stuttering as much as she could. She'd been told numerous times that her submissive and shy demeanour wasn't going to do her any favours in the future, and while being demure was fine in most cases, she needed to learn how to be more assertive.

"Are you enjoying it too?" She asked, pleased that she'd said it without a stutter, even if she was quieter than she'd intended to be.

"Sure, I guess." Naruto agreed. "I already knew most of the theory stuff we're reading, especially the history and the like. I prefer the kunai and shuriken accuracy we're doing, and I'm really looking forward to sparring. Those two are what I'm weakest at, so it'd be good to get some practise in, you know?"

"Ah, I guess." She mumbled. "I don't really like fighting myself. I… don't want to hurt anyone."

"Well… you should at least learn how to take care of yourself if you're ever in trouble, right?" Naruto said hesitantly, not entirely sure what direction this conversation was going in. "Once you can do that, maybe you can branch out into other types of things? I mean, if you don't want to hurt anyone, you could become a medic, or you could use paralytic or sleep poisons, or… maybe learn how to use a net! That's not very common for ninja, so it'd surprise an opponent if you fought with one, right?"

"Really?" Hinata asked, imagining herself beating people without actually hurting them.

"Yeah, and there's other stuff as well. I mean, a whip isn't very lethal, but that can be an effective weapon can't it? And I'm sure there's all sorts of rope and wire techniques that can tie someone up." Naruto continued, happy to have found something that the girl seemed genuinely interested in.

He continued chatting on about whatever weapons and techniques he could think of that could be used non-lethally, from bolas and traps to staffs and nets. This continued until they reached the academy and went to class. Naruto grinned as he took his seat, he believed that he may have made a new friend!

xxxxx

"You called for us, Lord Hokage?"

Hiruzen didn't reply immediately, looking over the four men now stood in front of him. Each one had a relatively strong connection to the fourth Hokage, one had been his student and the other three had been his personal bodyguards, as little as the man had needed such a thing.

"I did." He eventually said. "I have… a request for you three. This is not a mission, and it is completely voluntary, but I don't think you'll find it especially distasteful."

"What do you want us to do, Lord third?" Raido asked.

"I wish for you to befriend one Naruto Uzumaki." Hiruzen bluntly told them, earning surprised looks from all four of them. "Now, you know what he is, and also _who_ he is, but this has nothing to do with that particular set of circumstances. No, I want Naruto to develop stronger bonds to the village, as currently I see them as being tenuous at best."

"May we know what brought this on?" Iwashi asked. "I mean, it all seems a bit sudden… unless it has something to do with the Uchiha incident last night?"

"Last night is when I found out about it." Hiruzen told them. "It was Naruto who first discovered what happened, and it's purely down to him that there still are living Uchiha in the village. However, I found out several things that… surprised me."

He paused there, getting his thoughts in order.

"He is aware of his burden, and appears to have a rather low opinion of those that have… previously confined it. I believe that he also knows of his own heritage and is not particularly impressed with the village, no doubt encouraged by the attitudes of some of the villagers." He explained.

"I can't say I really blame the kid." Genma said. "I mean, I've heard some of the shit that they're spewing, and it's ridiculous. I suppose stuff like that is why the previous vessels identities were kept secret?"

"That and a lack of ability to use its chakra." Hiruzen admitted. "Naruto might be the first one to actually use it properly given his apparent friendship with his prisoner." Hiruzen also recalled feeling biju chakra circulating in Naruto's body last night.

"So… you're asking us to make friends with a, what is he, an eight year old?" Iwashi asked for confirmation.

"It's a request, not an order, and you don't have to be friends. Just try and become something for him, whether that be an older brother, a parental figure, an uncle, whatever, it doesn't matter. I simply worry for and about him, and while I still hope he'll make some good friends his own age, I only want what is best for him." The Hokage replied.

"You believe he knows about his… parents?" Kakashi finally spoke.

"I do." The Hokage responded.

"Then I might have a few stories for him to hear, if he's willing." Kakashi volunteered. "Any more than that… I don't know whether I _can_ make a friend, though I might be able to manage being an older brother. That's what I would have been, had sensei survived."

Hiruzen gave Kakashi a pitying look. The young man was socially stunted, and had taken Minato's death badly, even worse than his own father's suicide. He'd made something of a recovery in the years since the kyuubi attack, but Kakashi had never been the most social of people, even as a child himself.

"There's not much I can really contribute." Genma then said. "Kakashi would know more stories about his dad than I would, and he's an academy student, what could we really bond over? If I tried making friends with an eight year old, it'd probably come across more creepy than anything else." He shrugged. "Still, I've got nothing against the kid, and I'll keep an eye out for him if nothing else."

"Like Genma, there's not much I can really do here." Raido added. "I can keep an eye on him, and if he graduates the academy I could be his jounin sensei, but right now? We have no reasonable reason to get close to him, not unless you want to use the Uchiha incident as an excuse. Perhaps say we're keeping an eye on him in case Itachi comes back or something, you did say he was involved in the mess last night after all."

"That's only an excuse, and a flimsy one at that." Iwashi countered. "It'd be better if it wasn't an assignment, maybe a 'concerned' older ninja that won't clearly say why they're worried until they slip up and mention the kid's father. That'd work best for Kakashi though, _everyone_ knows how much he looked up to Lord Fourth."

"Deception isn't really the best way to start any sort of relationship." Genma pointed out. "If he found out it was a trick, or even just started off as one, it could collapse and do some serious damage to his trust and faith in adults. Of course, that's if he's not suspicious of us to start with. Kids are both the most and least trusting people there are."

Hiruzen sat back and watched the four men argue and discuss the various merits in different ways of approaching Naruto. He hadn't had to do much and already they were considering his request, whether they realised it or not. Whether anything actually came of this or not, Hiruzen believed that it would be good for not just Naruto, but Kakashi as well.

xxxxx

In Konoha's hospital, in one ward in particular, the curtains were drawn back so the occupants could all see one another. In separate beds where eight males, all of which were Uchiha. These eight, along with the four females in the next ward on the corridor, were all that remained in the village of a clan that once outnumbered some of the smallest ninja villages.

Only seven of the room's occupants were awake now, Sasuke Uchiha remaining in a coma due to what his brother Itachi had done to him. His vital signs were strong though, and the staff were confident that he would make a full recovery once his mind overcame the effects of the genjutsu he had been subjected to.

One of the other occupants of the room, maybe half a decade or so older than Sasuke, was glaring at the younger boy with eyes full of hatred. In one hand, off the side of his bed, he clutched a sheathed sword with a white knuckle grip.

"Give it up, brat, he's not going to burst into flames no matter how much you glare at him." Akira Uchiha, a twenty-three year old chunin, sighed.

"You heard what the doctors said." Shirou, the glaring boy, spat. "He was genjutsu'd into a coma! No other injuries to speak of! That fucking bastard left him alive while he slaughtered the rest of us! Maybe the kid's in on it and he'll kill any of us left alive. I don't trust the little shit and I never will."

Akira grumbled before speaking clearly once more. "Yeah, it's obvious he was left alive, and while I'm not going to be turning my back to the kid any time soon, he's still the only main house Uchiha left, the clan heir after Itachi's rampage has made him… ineligible, but we've got other problems to deal with."

"Like what?" Shirou growled. "We're stuck in the bloody hospital if you hadn't noticed, and after this what is there? This room and the next has _all_ of the Uchiha left. Just yesterday there weren't enough rooms in this damned place to fit our clan in properly."

"Exactly." Akira shot back. "You think I don't know that!? You lost your parents kid, but I lost my wife and son too, so don't think you're the only one who suffered because of this."

Shirou didn't look pleased, but he didn't retort. He already knew that lots of people had died. Heck, none of the remaining Uchiha were closer than third cousins. Parents, siblings, children, spouses, friends, and so many more lost to the celebrated clan prodigy. Fuck, it made him sick!

The old man Genma then let out a sharp bark of laughter, though there was very little humour in it. "And to think that it's only because of the village pariah that we're still alive. I've never thought much of the little blonde midget, and now I owe him my life!"

"Pariah?" Shirou asked to get his mind off his dead relatives. "This 'Naruto Uzumaki' they mentioned? What do you mean when you call him that?"

Genma let out a huff. "What are they teaching at the academy these days. The signs are all there but no one has put it together." He grumbled. "It's punishable by law to talk about it, brat, but it's enough to know that a portion of this village hates his guts, and before you ask it's not because of anything that he did, but something that was done to him."

Akira nodded in agreement. "It used to be that our clan avoided him almost completely. After all, it wouldn't do to have us 'influencing' the beast, especially when it's known just what a previous member of our clan did with it under his control."

"What are you two talking about?" Shirou demanded, not at all happy with being left out of the loop.

"Something we can't talk about openly." Akira told him. "Either work it out yourself or find someone willing and able to divulge village secrets to you. Heck, the kid himself should be allowed to tell you, if he knows about it himself of course."

"Oh, I think he knows." Laughed Genma. "I wasn't quite unconscious when he treated my injuries, and I quite clearly saw 'it' stood beside him, talking with the blonde midget. It wasn't as big as I remember it, not by a mile, but I saw that beast once before and I will _never_ forget it's likeness, not if I were to live to a thousand."

"Okay, seriously, stop doing this!" Shirou huffed.

Akira sighed, looking back to Shirou. "Look, kid, we legally _can't_ tell you. It's a stupid law that was put in place too late to stop people finding out about it, but everyone your age and younger was kept out of the loop because of it. It's not the most well kept secret, and if you ask around I'm sure you'll eventually find some idiot who'll tell you. Just don't be surprised if an Anbu tells you to stop asking those sorts of questions."

Shirou accepted that and leaned back against the pillows in his bed, looking around at the other male Uchiha in the room with him. Only Sasuke was unconscious, but none of the others were in any state to be talking. One guy had his throat bandaged up and may never speak again, and the other three were just staring blankly at the walls or ceiling. While he might be dealing with loss via anger, they didn't seem to be handling it as well as he was.

He collapsed backwards onto the bed and lay down fully. The doctor's had said that the best of them would be out in a couple of days, after observation, but… what the bloody heck was he going to do? His parents were dead, killed by their clan's 'greatest' ninja since Madara Uchiha, and he was only a genin.

What would become of the Uchiha clan? Sasuke might be the clan head's son, but there was no way that an eight year old could represent a clan. Genma was the oldest Uchiha left, but he had a rather caustic personality and had made plenty of political enemies with his blunt and degrading comments. Of the other adults still alive, none really stood out as being capable of leading the clan.

Of course, they could barely be called a clan now, what with their only being a dozen of them left. It would take decades at least for them to regain what they'd lost in a single night, and that was assuming none of those left alive died on missions, had plenty of children, and that they would all be at least decently skilled.

While Shirou didn't put as much stock in the inherent 'greatness' of the Uchiha, he was still proud to call himself one, just as he was proud of his burgeoning sword skills. He knew that things were going to change now, and he didn't know how they were going to change.

That… honestly scared him.

Would the twelve remaining Uchiha all move into one, or several adjacent – homes together? Would they be expected to get along just because they were related to each other? Just what was going to happen to them?

Questions chased each other around in his mind, each one more depressing than the last. All he could really do though was hope for the best-

-and prepare for the worst.


	25. Burn

AN: I'm really sorry about the delay since the last chapter. It sounds like an excuse, I know, but real life does take priority over fiction unfortunately. Seriously, I've been in and out of the hospital so much the last few months that I'm beginning to know the hallways off by heart, and I just had another x-ray on Friday just gone that I'm waiting for results for. Amyway, on to more relevant things, this chapter was rather hard to write, it just didn't flow very well and has been re-written four times before this one was typed up. I hope you like it, and for those impatient ones amongst you, there's this and another small arc, maybe two, before Naruto becomes a genin (but don't expect that to be anything like canon), so please be patient with me. Also, for those who complained about Naruto's clothing, he's going to wear all sorts of things, not just a single outfit throughout the entire fic.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 25 - Burn

It had been several weeks since the Uchiha 'incident' and things in the village were starting to calm down. The rumours and whispers that had run rampant through the populace began to taper off as nothing new came up for them to talk about. Of course, _some_ rumours persisted, especially after one Shirou Uchiha had knelt down in front of the demon child in the middle of the street and publicly thanked him for saving his life, along with the remaining Uchiha.

The fact that Naruto had looked very awkward and unsure about how to react to that had only made more people speculate about what had happened that night, as before that point it hadn't been known that the blonde child had been involved in any way with the incident in question, much less that he had saved lives.

Of course, not everything was looking sunny. Sasuke Uchiha, the heir of the clan now that Itachi had 'gone rogue', had not yet awoken from the coma he was in, and the remaining Uchiha were trying to get on with their lives. This was made much more difficult when they discovered that several of their dead clan members had had their eyes removed from their corpses.

It wasn't _just_ the Uchiha who were angered by that. The other clans with bloodlines were pissed off that someone would dare desecrate a corpse to steal its bloodline. While this might be somewhat expected from a rival village, this had obviously happened _within_ Konoha itself, and everyone was put on high alert while an investigation was started to look into it.

This came at a good time for Naruto though. The inchlings that swarmed around Naruto had told him that they'd started to see four particular ninja following him after that incident. It hadn't taken the blonde long to find out who they were once they'd given him their descriptions, and the jinchuuriki was a little unsure about the attention he was getting.

He'd expected the Hokage to assign him a watcher or the like after his 'little' revelations that night, but the ones who _were_ looking over him… all four of them had a direct connection to the fourth Hokage, his father, and he doubted that was a coincidence.

It made him wonder… were they actually worried about him, because of who his father was? Were they feeling guilty that they'd never done anything about him before? Or were they specifically assigned his guards _because_ they were his father's guards and so might be able to 'connect' with him in some way?

Okay, that may be an overly paranoid way of looking at things, but Naruto didn't know what to think. Before he'd met Benio, and through her the rest of the youkai he could now call his friends, he hadn't really had anyone. True, the Hokage made some time for him, but he was a very busy man and didn't really have much spare time for his own grandson, never mind Naruto as well.

Of course, Naruto had other things to be worrying about rather than just the habits of village ninja…

xxxxx

The blonde flinched as he ran his fingers over his newest injury, a dark purple bruise that was clearly in the shape of a hand, a slender and feminine hand at that. Just beyond that bruise were five small marks, the sort of thing you'd get if someone dug fingernails sharp enough to draw blood into your flesh and dragged them downwards.

That, along with his increasingly frequent nightmares, was evidence enough for him that his personal demon was gaining in power again. The fact that his biju-granted healing had trouble with injuries she had caused made him worry as well. In fact, the only way he knew of to get rid of the bruises and marks she'd given him was to use the demonic technique he'd created based on that flesh beast in Lightning Country.

Hacking up some of that foul black substance that always turned up when he used demonic techniques and spitting it out, Naruto grimaced at seeing the amount that he'd produced this time. Somehow, he didn't think the fact there was a lot less of it than when he'd first started using said technique was a very positive thing.

Ignoring the unpleasant implications of that for now, the blonde got ready for the Ninja Academy. He'd been up for almost two hours already, looking over his traps in the forest for any wild animals that had been caught, checking the fruit and vegetables he was growing, having a small spar with Takame, and just generally organising things around the house and tidying things up when needed.

There was a soft sound on the table as Minako set down a standard ninja pouch filled with Academy standard kunai and shuriken next to him as he ate his breakfast. He had to hide a grimace at that, as while he practised with the standardised ninja weaponry, he wasn't particularly fond of either of them at all.

At range, Naruto much preferred a bow, switching to a spear for close quarters. Where there wasn't enough room to comfortable use a spear, he then switched to a long dagger or short sword. Of course, that was when Naruto fought alone and _without_ Takame there to become a pair of iron claws for him.

"Are you ready for another day of learning, Naruto?" Tsuyukami cheerfully asked the blonde, sorting through several letters as he did so. He was probably reading through the 'reports' that he got from various youkai, deciding which bits Naruto might like to know later and which ones were requests for assistance of varying sorts.

"Actually, yeah, I am." Naruto replied. "Umino-sensei said the other day that we're going to be looking at the founding of the hidden villages in history today. I remember reading that a large, organised group of bandits once tried to take out some of the lesser villages when they were still new. If I recall, they used siege engines like catapults and ballistae to great effect, and that sounds really interesting."

"Oh? You're interested in old fashioned artillery, are you?" Tsuyukami asked. "I remember they were popular centuries back, before ninja and samurai became the only real military forces around. Many 'civilian' villages and towns used to have them set up for protection, and I remember them being quite effective, especially when used in large numbers."

"Really?" Naruto asked. "I didn't know civilians used to have anything resembling a military, they certainly don't these days. The closest thing to 'civilian' armed forces are, well, bandits really. I guess it makes sense though, I've heard some of the youkai talk about how dangerous and violent the world used to be."

"And you should remember that." Tsuyukami cautioned him. "As much as humans call ninja wars hell on earth, it's _nothing_ compared to how things were even two centuries ago. Back then no one was safe and _everyone_ knew how to fight and kill. Even ordinary villagers would have a dagger or something ready and knew how to use them."

"That sounds pretty bad." Naruto murmured. "I can't even imagine how chaotic life must have been back then."

"It was bad." Tsuyukami agreed. "But the older youkai can tell you about a time it was worse. There was a short period of peace almost a thousand years ago, but before that was a dark time, far worse than anything that has since happened." He clapped his hands together. "Anyway, enough of the depressing stuff! You were telling me about your interest in catapults, weren't you?"

"Oh, yeah!" Naruto remembered what he'd been saying. "I was just thinking that stuff like that might make my shikigami more effective. They were used for a reason, right? And shikigami are stronger than civilians, so they should be able to use them without any problems, even if they're not 'ninja' strong."

"Didn't you already look into siege engines a while back?" Tsuyukami asked. "I seem to remember you looking into ballistae being the reason behind your shikigami using crossbows as opposed to yumi bows."

"Yeah, that's right." Naruto confirmed. "It's just that ballistae are too big for my shikigami to 'spawn' with, unlike arbalests, and you know that I'm unable to use regular storage seals, so I can't exactly carry them around like that."

"You could make a shikigami shaped like a catapult or ballista though, couldn't you?" Tsuyukami suggested.

"Maybe." Naruto glanced at his newest iteration of his shiki-bow, a charm on his wrist. "Probably." He corrected himself. "A siege engine is bigger than a bow, but there's no reason I _couldn't_ do it… and given how shikigami don't quite follow the laws of biology or physics, there might be something a little special I could do as well."

Tsuyukami reached over the table and ruffled Naruto's hair. "You do that, Naruto. Now, finish your breakfast, you've got the Academy to get to, do you not?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, but did as Tsuyukami said and finished his breakfast which promptly disappeared. Calling a thanks to Minako and a farewell, the blonde jinchuuriki headed out of the cabin. Almost as soon as he did so, a swarm of inchlings surrounded him, calling out greetings of their own.

Amongst those greetings were little titbits of information here and there. For example, Hinoe had apparently drank herself into a hangover again the night before, Madara and Misuzu were butting heads like they usually did, and Shin the bakeneko had apparently gotten caught in one of the Kappas' pranks and was cleaning his fur right now, and had been for hours already apparently.

The gossip network amongst the local youkai was probably more effective than the reports that Tsuyukami got from across the continent. Still, there were things that even they didn't know, the location of the pilfered Uchiha eyes for example. That was something that Naruto, and Kurama too, really worried.

While they _had_ been working on blind-fighting – mostly using Kurama's negative emotion sensing to detect the 'intent to attack' - not all illusions were visual. While less common, there were genjutsu techniques for making or muting sound, causing sensory deprivation, inducing nausea, confusion, and pain, amongst goodness knows how many more.

It was a foolish, and most likely dead, person who thought all genjutsu were seen, and an unprepared idiot who believed that the entire branch of techniques was limited to the five senses. To Naruto, that's what made genjutsu appear the most terrifying and dangerous of all ninja techniques, even more so than fuinjutsu.

It was a bit of an annoyance to him that he didn't have much success with 'mental' and 'suggestion' techniques. While his elemental techniques could be said to be wildly effective and successful, and his talismans were quite effective and useful, his attempts at illusions and mental suggestions were average, at best.

He _could_ make non-corporeal illusionary copies of himself or other things, much like the Academy 'Bunshin' that everyone was taught, and he _could_ also put suggestions in someone's mind, but only the really weak of mind would succumb to them. In fact, Naruto had trouble convincing a cat to get up and wander around.

Than again, Naruto personally believed that cat to have more strength of will than a number of unpleasant humans he had met, and a few handfuls of the more… 'simple-minded' youkai as well. He would never forget that odd vole-type youkai who'd resolutely kept bumping head first into a tree rather than walk around it and continue on his way.

Anyway, that wasn't important right now. While those thoughts worked well to occupy him on his walk to the academy, he didn't want to be distracted from anything he might learn in lessons that day.

xxxxx

Mari Uchiha, ten years old and only current Uchiha aside from Sasuke who had yet to graduate from the Ninja Academy, stood with her two distant cousins Shirou and Tsubaki. Neither of them had returned to active duty yet, apparently the hospital refused to allow it until they'd passed a psychiatric test.

Shirou still held plenty of anger and hatred towards Itachi, but if that was all it was it wouldn't be a problem, that boy – and Itachi had only been thirteen – _had_ slaughtered their families after all, anger was understandable. What wasn't acceptable was his hair trigger temper that had him lashing out at the slightest perceived slight towards his remaining family.

Tsubaki, on the other hand, had withdrawn into herself, becoming empty and often unresponsive. The only exceptions was when she was approached by someone unfamiliar – in which case she would retaliate instantly with intent to kill – and when she was around Shirou, who she'd sort of latched onto.

Not in a romantic way, no. Lacking any immediate family, the two acted like overprotective siblings with each other. Well, Shirou was trying to hold together what was left of the clan as well as he could, and it was Tsubaki who was keeping him from losing himself as well.

It hurt, if Mari was honest with herself. Her family, her clan, had been one of the most well known in the entire Elemental Nations, as famous as the Senju and Hyuuga clans, two others that called Konoha their home, and in a single night, a matter of _hours…_ most of them had been slaughtered like cattle.

She didn't believe that Itachi had done it to 'test' himself as so many said, which also happened to be the official story. That just didn't make sense, and what she knew of Itachi didn't match up. True, she had never even spoken to him once, but with how much he was hailed a prodigy 'beyond all others', he was quite well known, especially in the Uchiha district, and he seemed, if anything, too 'professional' to just lose it and slaughter everyone like he did.

Mari grimaced as a rather bitter taste ghosted across her tongue. A point against Itachi simply going 'rogue' was how he'd left _Sasuke_ alive. Every other Uchiha, _every last one of them_ , had been struck an efficient, deadly blow, but not Itachi's own brother.

While it was debatable whether long term mental torture was better or worse than the short term pain and lengthy recovery they'd had to deal with, it nevertheless marked Sasuke as 'different'. He'd been left alive, and she really didn't believe the bullshit excuse about him 'not being strong enough' to bother with.

He hadn't been strong enough, but her four month old cousin was? Itachi had killed little Kimiko, Mari _remembered_ that happening, had seen it personally. That moment had been engraved into her mind by her activated sharingan, something that had only woken the night of the massacre after seeing her parents' corpses and Itachi stood over them with a blade dripping crimson red.

"Mari."

She jumped almost out of her skin as she felt an arm on her shoulder, looking up to see Shirou giving her a comforting and sympathetic smile.

She flushed with embarrassment. Intellectually, she might know that all of her remaining family, the younger ones especially, were prone to spacing out, panic attacks, flinching, and bouts of inexplicable fear, but that didn't stop her feeling ashamed for doing it.

Turning away from the boy, she pointedly looked down the path leading towards the Academy, catching sight of something that she immediately focused on.

What she saw was a blonde boy, younger than she was, wearing a red, almost robe-like, jacket that reached to just below his knees. The sleeves were long and flared, covering all but the very tips of his fingers, with a broad band of black edging to balance the red. Though she couldn't see it from the front, there was also a taijitu stitched on the back of the jacket as well. He wore dark grey pants and a simple shirt in a deep red colour.

"Is that him?" Mari asked quietly.

"Yes." Shirou confirmed. "That is Naruto Uzumaki, the one whom we owe our lives to."

"Is he… keeping his distance from everyone else?" She wondered, noticing how he didn't approach any of the other kids milling about, seemingly much more content to sit at the bottom of a nearby tree and lean back against it than to interact with his peers.

"It looks like it." Shirou agreed. "I don't know much about him, but I have heard that he's a bit of a loner, that he lives by himself, and he's generally friendly to anyone who doesn't insult him." Left out were some of the less pleasant rumours he'd heard, about Naruto being a demon in human flesh, possessing an incredible bloodthirsty streak, and more.

"He doesn't look like much." Mari admitted. "I mean, his clothes seem really impractical. How can someone fight with sleeves like _that_?"

"You're a shinobi in training, looks are _meant_ to be deceiving." Shirou cautioned her, recalling one mission half a year previously where he'd fallen for a trick where a bandit scout had been masquerading as a merchant and had almost done away with all of his money.

"And the clothes?" Mari prompted him to continue.

"Are different to other things I've seen him in." Shirou commented. "Last time I saw him he was wearing almost pure black, and it was a lot more tight on his body than that outfit." Tsubaki leaned in towards him and whispered something into his ear. "He's also been seen wearing a kimono too." He relayed to Mari.

Mari froze in place, as did Tsubaki, when Naruto's eyes suddenly shifted focus to rest directly on the three of them. Her breath caught in the back of her throat as his sharp blue eyes seemed to stab right through her, and she began to shake and sweat with the intensity in them.

He gave the three of them a brief nod of greeting from where he was, before pulling out a notebook from an inner pocket and beginning to write in it. It was only when he looked away that Mari managed to get a hold of herself again, nervously swallowing and gulping the knot in her throat away.

She glanced at Shirou and Tsubaki to see that both of them had been affected as well. Shirou's right hand was clammy and he had a killer grip on the sword sheathed at his waist while his left hand was clenched into a fist so tight that his nails had dug into his hand, causing it to begin bleeding.

Tsubaki was worse though. Her eyes were darting frantically around like a cornered animal's, and she was almost completely hidden behind Shirou's back. Her breathing was heavy and erratic, panting almost, and Mari could almost smell the fear rolling off her.

"Y-yeah, don't take th-things at face v-value." Shirou stuttered out. "I've heard good and bad things about Naruto Uzumaki, but the only thing they can agree on is that he's odd, like he's not really there." Realising how this sounded, he hurried to correct their impressions of him.

"Not crazy, no!" He said. "Just… like he lives in a different world to everyone else." Mari gave him a look, to which he shrugged in response. "He lives alone in the forest around Konoha, it almost _is_ like he's an outsider, and you already know just how many rumours are made about the Uchiha because we live in our own district."

Mari had to give him that one. Even she had heard some of the strange stories people had told about the Uchiha, like the one that claimed that their eyes were so precious to the clan that at a funeral they'd be cooked up and eaten to 'keep it in the clan'. That was just disgusting to think about, and so if Naruto lived even more separate from the village than the Uchiha had… well, a few odd rumours were kind of expected.

xxxxx

Naruto continued writing and sketching in his notebook even during class.

As it turned out, the lesson on the founding of the villages was very much propoganda. It was at least truthful, what with Konoha being the first ninja village and many others copying them, but… well, the lesson focused more on the politics of the various clans and how they all joined together to make a 'great' village.

Not that such things weren't interesting! No, the whole thing was actually quite fascinating, especially with how borders were decided, how clans were promised one thing or another to join, small skirmishes between those that opposed this new system, and how the organisation of such villages developed.

There was only three things keeping Naruto from really enjoying the lesson. The first was that, while Iruka Umino really knew his stuff, he had a rather dry and flat speaking voice. It was clear the man was trying to make things exciting and intriguing, but a public speaker he was not.

The second thing that annoyed him was that he'd gotten rather hyped up for the lesson, hoping it would go in a different direction, like how civilian villages developed alongside the ninja villages of the time, or the de-militarisation of non-ninja forces. He'd have _loved_ to have heard about how bandits and non-ninja warriors developed in this changing environment.

Third… well, he really didn't like how much was missed out of the lesson. There was no mention of the biju at all, especially not of how Hashirama Senju captured them all and proceeded to hand them out like sweets at a child's party. There was no mention of the Uzumaki clan and its close connection to the Senju, the rivalry between the Senju and Uchiha was mentioned only in passing – Madara Uchiha himself being an exception – and there was very little mention of regular, non-clan ninjas.

Granted, a major percentage of the village's ninja force was composed of people from various clans, but not all of them! It was just that it was only _after_ the shinobi villages settled that regular civilians really had the opportunity to learn how to mould chakra and fight like a ninja does.

Naruto glanced down at his notes – written in youkai-script out of habit – and looked them over. Mostly, they were doodles about heavy weapons and ideas for new shikigami and ways to improve current ones. Turning his falcon shikigami explosive would make them more combat effective. Modifying the arms of the crossbow wielding shiki would improve their rate of fire. Standardising the height of the spear/sword and shield shiki would make formation fighting easier…

Beyond all of this, however, were two particular ideas he was idly considering. One was a 'titan' shikigami. A regular shiki, but made enormous, tall enough to stand over a boss summon. The problem with this was how much it would drain him. Reiryoku, Naruto's primary source of power, was a _spiritual_ power, and making something that big would require massive amounts of _physical_ power, though exactly how much that would be, he didn't know.

His second idea looked like something straight out of Dungeons and Dragon's crazier sections – if Naruto had even known what he was missing out on – and was relatively simple in concept. It was essentially a 'living' ballistae, one that had arms to reset the weapon, release the shots, and load fresh ammunition.

Tapping his pencil on the page of his notebook, Naruto's eyes flickered up to the still droning on Iruka Umino, and finally gave into frustration. He slumped down in his seat, his eyes closing, making him look like he was asleep. Well, either that or look like a Yamanaka using one of their mental techniques, but Naruto didn't know anything like that, did he?

xxxxx

There are many wildly different types of youkai in existence. Humans have given names to literal hundreds of them, and yet there are many more that they are unaware of, and countless more than that which simply don't particularly fit into simple categories. Even the named youkai are not necessarily the same as humans imagine them to be, mistakes and misconceptions abound with such beings.

Kosenjobi, spirits that looked like balls of fire that float over old battlefields, were creatures that humans had misinterpreted. It was true that they formed there, the sheer mass of chaotic emotions, desires, intents, and desperation all worked to form a number of different youkai. Many of them were malevolent, others ominous, and a small handful were far more simple than that.

Kosenjobi fell in the last category, simple-minded spirits. The burning emotions that spawned them granted them an instinctive desire to seek out heat and warmth, fire in other words, and they drifted across the world in search of more fire to bathe themselves in.

As it was, one such spirit drifted into Konoha and immediately found a blazing fire to satiate its needs. However, after a moment, the spirit realised something was wrong. The fire was bright, hot, and it could even 'smell' the smokey ashes the blaze was producing.

Yet, the fire didn't feel… right. A kosenjobi might only have roughly the intelligence of a dog, but it wasn't completely dumb. After all, there were some pretty intelligent canines out there. So, in typical animal fashion it looked for people to bother to fix its problem for it.

Of course, with regular humans unable to see or sense it – except in relatively rare circumstances – all they noticed was a sudden burning sensation when it nudged them, leaving their flesh red as a lobster fresh from the pot. That didn't deter the kosenjobi though, and it continued trying to get the attention of anyone who could notice it, getting so caught up in its game that it almost forgot what it was after in the first place.

It wasn't until another youkai, a yatagarasu resting in a tree, became annoyed with the fire and told it to track down the 'whisker-marked' mostly human that anything actually happened. Given a direction, and using its supernatural senses to try and trace something 'mostly' human had it quickly narrowing down the one person who it had been told to find.

Naruto jumped in surprise when a fireball suddenly dived at him, leaving a painful mark on his arm. For a moment, he thought that a ninja was attacking him with a Katon technique, but when the fireball started bouncing around in front of him he realised that this must be some sort of youkai.

"Can you speak?" Naruto asked it.

It shook side to side.

"Do you need something?" He persisted.

It bounced up and down, before tagging his arm again and darting off.

"I think it wants me to follow it." Naruto said, looking to Tsurara next to him.

"I'm right here in case anything happens." The yuki-onna assured him. "If you want to chase after it, then I'm going with you."

The butterfly in his hair, Benio, whacked him with a wing – a lot harder than a butterfly really should be able to – letting him know she was there as well.

"Can you see anything from the way it came?" The blonde asked the inchlings around him.

One of them flew higher into the air and looked that way, before diving down to report to Naruto, telling him one thing.

"I can see smoke, lots of it." She informed him.

"Fire?" Naruto exclaimed, before getting to his feet and flashing away in a flicker of blue light.

xxxxx

Naruto might have been the first to arrive at the fire to find a blazing building, but he was soon followed by others, either people who had seen smoke themselves or those who had seen the flashes of blue light Naruto left behind as he used hirenkyaku to get there.

Either way, there was a large home – possibly a clan compound going by its size – and Naruto could clearly feel living people inside there, and… his negative emotion sensing was also sparking too.

It was unfortunate that Isobu wasn't with him, he could summon enough water to completely quench these flames. Naruto himself could conjure and manipulate water, but with the amount he could create it would be like pouring a thimble of water onto a bonfire, rather ineffective.

That didn't mean he was completely useless though, and several of the ninja who'd followed him had already begun using what techniques they possessed to dampen down the flames. That left the people he could sense inside that needed to be rescued.

Pulling a handkerchief out of one of his many inside pockets, he quickly tied it around his lower face. He then checked his bracers were strapped tightly to his forearms and proceeded to flash to the building, smashing a window to get inside quickly.

Several of the ninjas who were fighting the flames saw the actions of the brave child and wished him luck. As none of the ones currently present were sensors, and using the shunshin in quick succession would tire them out rather quickly, leaving themselves trapped in the burning building as well, Naruto was actually the best suited for the rescue.

Of course, as he rapidly flashed through the building, grabbed the first living person he could, flashed out again, and repeated his actions, he was soon seen again by the onlookers. Several of them split off to check the newly rescued individuals, those with medical skills checking them over as best they could.

Once they were stable, they were quickly hurried off to the hospital to deal with smoke inhalation, burns, and other injuries received while they'd been inside that burning building.

The last one Naruto rescued was a young girl, maybe a year or two older than himself. He'd found her in a cellar, relatively protected and safe from the fire, but seeing her sparked something in his mind, and it took him a short while to work out what it was.

The fire, it didn't seem to have an obvious central source. It was like it had just appeared from nothing, and the traces of chakra he could feel laced into it, as little as it was, made him sit up and pay attention. The burned canvas he'd found with the girl only made her more suspicious in his eyes, and that was on top of the negative emotions he could feel… buried? within her.

He'd try and work that puzzle out later, for now he was going to help the ninja try and save as much of the building as possible.


	26. Portents

AN: Hey, guys! It's not been as much of a wait as before! Part of that is because I'm getting a new laptop tomorrow and I didn't want to leave this half finished on my hard drive and forget about it. Anyway, here's the follow up to the last chapter. The next one should continue, or maybe even complete, the Kurama clan arc. After that, I'm thinking of doing a chapter from Sasuke's point of view to change things up a bit. After that's done, then either the next mini-arc or perhaps something to do with 'Naruko', depending on what ends up happening. Anyway, enjoy!

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 26 - Portents

Naruto sat on a chair and swung his legs back and forth, too short to properly reach the floor. Before him, the Hokage continued smoking his pipe as he looked over several reports that had been delivered to his desk. One of them was regarding the fire that was currently being murmured about in the village, the others were hospital records of those recovered from the fire. He glanced occasionally at a large man beside him who was also looking through a number of reports.

Hiruzen sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose, looking up at the blonde eight year old as he did so.

"Naruto, please can you explain to me just what you were doing at the Kurama clan compound yesterday?" He asked, noticing the child's reaction at the clan name. He wondered what it was about them that had surprised the boy so much, and what contributed to his amusement.

"I saw smoke and felt some negativity in that direction, so I went to see what was going on." Naruto replied easily, though the Hokage believed that he was leaving things out once again.

"Negativity?" He prompted the boy.

"Something the Kyuubi granted me." Naruto explained. "It's one of his abilities that he can confer on his host."

Hiruzen frowned. "I don't recall Kushina ever having anything like that." He murmured.

"Do you really think he'd give it willingly unless he liked you?" Naruto snorted. "Kushina's seal was different, and so was Mito's. Now _her_ seal actually allowed her to forcibly take that ability from the Kyuubi." The disgust was evident in the blonde's voice, but Hiruzen decided to overlook it for the time being.

"This… 'negativity', were you able to find its source?" The man beside the Hokage asked.

"Yeah, but it's weird." Naruto frowned. "It was coming from that girl I pulled out of the fire, but… it was kind of 'buried' within her. I don't mean that she was hiding or suppressing it, I know what that feels like, it was almost like there was a second set of emotions within her, a split personality or something maybe."

"The girl was feeling enough hatred for you to notice it across the village?" The man pressed for more information.

"Not just hatred, there was plenty of anger and resentment there as well." Naruto replied. "I got the feeling that it was directed at… one or two people? It was too focused to just be things in general, but it didn't seem sharp enough for just one person." Naruto's frown deepened as he tried to figure out anything he could about what he'd sensed.

He was capable of sensing quite a lot. His blind fighting training was _all about_ using Kurama's negative emotion sensing to work out who was doing what, and it worked… to an extent. It was all well and good to know _when_ someone was going to attack, but if he didn't know _how…_ well, just imagine trying to block a punch to the face when they were actually kicking you in the shin.

It worked well with his archery though! Seeing as he got a location and an 'intent to attack', he had a target and something to keep his distance from. Still, he was going to keep working on it, getting as good as he could with the severely underrated ability.

The large man glanced at the Hokage, before looking back at Naruto.

"Kid, have you ever thought about what sort of ninja you want to be after you graduate?" He asked, giving Naruto a serious look over, noting the look in his eye. "Perhaps you might want to check out Torture and Interrogation?"

"Ibiki!" The Hokage snapped. "He's _eight_!"

"He's going to be a ninja, and he'll have seen plenty of blood and guts during the Uchiha Massacre. He's come out of that okay." The now named Ibiki defended himself. "Besides, if his negative sensing is really that good, it'd be a waste not to use it. You know as well as I that other villages are always trying to develop defences and counters to the Yamanaka mind techniques."

The Hokage grimaced. As famous as the clan of mind-walkers was, it was inevitable that someone would eventually work out a way to stop them working. There had been some pretty nasty traps hidden inside the heads of captured ninja before, including an etched explosive seal on the inside of a man's skull, set to go off if too much foreign chakra was detected in their brain. That little mess had cost him three people in addition to the Yamanaka actually rooting around in his head.

"He's still far too young for that type of work." Hiruzen tiredly sighed. "Even then, his sensing ability can't ferret out the truth, merely emotions."

Naruto felt rather slighted at having Kurama's negativity sensing dismissed as 'merely' emotional, but held his tongue.

"He can detect more than just simple emotions though, who's to say he can't detect a lie? Perhaps even a partial lie, or when someone's insinuating something, or even when they're using misdirection?" Ibiki retorted.

The Hokage silently stared at Ibiki, and after a few moments the man stepped back, but he still didn't seem happy with the Hokage's dismissal of his idea.

Naruto looked between the two men curiously. While he knew that the Hokage wasn't omnipotent, the village was still technically a dictatorship, and this was the first time he'd personally seen someone disagree with the old man this strongly. It was rather weird actually.

"Do you need anything else?" Naruto asked, wanting to get out of there.

"No, Naruto, you're free to go." The Hokage told him. "Just… keep in mind that with this now, and with the Uchiha incident happening so recently too, you're building up something of a reputation. People are going to be watching you much more closely than they did before."

Naruto bid them farewell before leaving the two men in the office.

Ibiki grumbled. "He's hiding something. He's good, letting us know one thing, like he's letting it slip, but there's still more that we don't know." He growled low in his throat. "I don't like it."

"Nor do I." The Hokage sighed. "But what am I to do? We have no proof, and if I just tossed him into T&I… The remaining Uchiha almost revere him right now, and the Kurama clan now thinks of him as a hero for rescuing the main family. On top of that we have the general ninja population turning their eyes his way… No, this needs to be handled very delicately."

The Hokage set down the reports in his hands and picked up another one. This report regularly appeared on his desk every two weeks, and it put all of Jiraya's spy reports to shame. Of course, things couldn't be that simple, and literally _no one_ knew exactly who delivered them, though Hiruzen suspected that Naruto was at least partially behind it.

As paranoid as it sounded, the blonde seemed to be part of _everything_ recently.

xxxxx

Naruto stumbled slightly as he left the Hokage's tower.

 _I'm almost there, almost free_

His eyes widened and darted around, before catching sight of something yellow in a window.

 _To wander where I wish eternally_

It was his reflection, but different. A twisted smile graced it's lips and a glint of madness danced in it's eyes.

 _To do whatsoever I choose_

The reflection's smile grew wider and wider, until it split in half, literally. A smile Naruto had only seen once before outside of his nightmares.

 _For in the end, you **will** lose_

The emphasis on the single word was not lost on the blonde. It was a statement of fact, rather than a choice being given, an inevitability.

 _And an endless war I will wage_

Visions of blood and destruction flashed before Naruto's eyes, everyone he knew and cared about littering the scorched grounds lifeless, their blood soaking the ground a crimson red.

 _To finally be free of you, my cage_

His reflection _shifted_ , becoming truly female, before giving him a playful wink. It drew a finger across it's neck as it smiled at him, before fading back to normal, Naruto's own reflection now staring back at him, misting up the image with how close he was to hyperventilating.

He jumped out of his skin when he felt a cool hand on his shoulder, jerkily looking up into Tsurara's eyes. Her own eyes were wide as her other hand reached for Naruto's neck, and pulled away with them coated in red.

A thin line had been cut straight across Naruto's neck.

"Naruto." The yuki-onna murmured. "Ar- are you alright?"

"I will be." He replied quietly. "I just need to figure out how to deal with this."

" _We_ will work things out." She corrected him. "You're not alone."

Naruto didn't verbally reply, but he did lean into Tsurara's hand, drawing comfort from the touch. He also felt the buttefly in his hair move around until it was on his face, covering his eye much like Benio's hair ornament did. The symbolism wasn't lost on Naruto, who smiled at the gesture.

"And it's not just us who are here for you." Tsurara added, turning him to face down the street to see Akiko heading right for him.

"Naruto, are you okay? I heard that you'd been called to see the Hokage, I came as quick as I could." The teacher fussed over him.

"Where did you hear that?" He wondered.

"Some of the parents who were collecting their kids were talking about you being escorted to the Hokage by an Anbu." She explained. "I threw my stuff into my bag and headed off straight away. Now tell me, is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine." Naruto told her, keeping one hand on his throat to hide the blood. "He just wanted to talk to me because of the fire yesterday, it's just a standard procedure thing I think."

He started heading off down the street towards his cabin. When he was facing away from Akiko, his left hand emitted a slight black aura as he healed up his throat and spat out the black goo that came with the healing technique. A small amount of water manipulation later and the blood was washed away too.

Akiko walked beside Naruto as they wandered through the village, both of them aware of all of the looks they – or more specifically Naruto – were getting. Both of them felt more than a bit uncomfortable with the scrutiny and hurried themselves along.

"I heard that there are rumours about me going around." Naruto broke the silence. "Have you heard any of them?"

"Oh, yes I have." Akiko replied, taking a moment to realise what he'd just said, too distracted by the muttering she could almost hear. "As I've heard, there are basically two groups; one of which is saying you're a bit of a hero, and the other side saying you're either like a bad luck charm or actually _causing_ problems." She grimaced in distaste at this, knowing that wasn't something he'd do.

She shivered as she felt the temperature drop, certain that Tsurara was both there and that she was not happy with the aspersions cast against Naruto's character. Seriously, that snow woman could almost go to yandere levels at times with Naruto. Luckily she wasn't that bad yet, and she hoped Tsurara never _did_ become that bad either.

She hurried them along, but at the edge of the forest they once again stopped.

A man with distinctly Uchiha features stepped out from the shade of the trees, stopping right in front of them.

"Uzumaki, I have a few questions I'm hoping you are willing to answer, and possibly an offer as well." He stated.

Naruto gave him a curious look, but asked what it was he wanted anyway.

"The Uchiha Military Police are supposed to be responsible for all petty crime and general law enforcement in the village, but after… what happened, there aren't enough of us to handle our duty. Clone techniques aren't an option either, it'd waste too much chakra to be properly effective." He explained.

"You're telling me this… why?" Naruto prodded.

"Your talisman creatures, can you tell me how much chakra they take to use?" The Uchiha asked.

"Very little." Naruto answered him. "The overcharged ones take more, and are more powerful because of it, but will disintegrate after a few hours. The standard ones will last pretty much indefinitely once activated though." He paused. "They do take one hundred percent pure Yin chakra though, so as far as I'm aware, only I can use them."

Akira Uchiha cursed under his breath, pure chakra like that was impossible for him. Heck, Tsunade Senju's famous strength technique was rumoured to use around ninety eight percent Yang chakra, and she was considered to be a strong contender for 'best chakra control' in the history of the Elemental Nations. If _she_ couldn't get one hundred percent purity…

He sighed. "Sorry for the bother then, but that's useless for us."

"Wait!" Naruto spoke out, seeing the man about to leave. "You might not be able to activate them, but I can, and I can also instruct them to obey you." That caught Akira's attention. "Ultimately, their loyalty will be to me, their creator, but if I order them to follow your instructions then they would do so."

"Okay then." Akira considered that idea. "Now, just how strong are they?"

"Low to mid genin." Naruto admitted unhappily. That was not even cannon fodder for a decent chunin, and barely even an annoyance to a jounin. He was only slightly stronger than them, but with his fighting style and techniques, he could slaughter hundreds of them at a time, though they can beat him in a two on one battle with close quarters weapons alone.

"That's… acceptable. The Military Police deal primarily with civilian disputes and a number of them _were_ genin and lead by a chunin." Akira nodded his head. "Now, while the technique is useless to us and so not something I will purchase, would you be willing to sell some actual… what do you call them, talisman creatures?"

"Shikigami, and I would be agreeable to selling some." Naruto agreed, amused that in one day he'd had too different people suggesting ways he could work and earn money. Ibiki obviously wanted him in Torture and Interrogation, and now this guy wanted to use his shikigami as a police force. "How many would you need and of what type?"

"What types can you make?" Akira asked.

"Falcons, Wolves, fighters, and crossbows. The first two are obvious, the fighters carry a tower shield on their left arm, a spear in their right hand, and a short sword sheathed at their waist. The crossbows are either repeating crossbows or arbalests, heavy crossbows."

Akira thought about it for a moment, before asking Naruto how many he thought would be required to cover all of Konoha.

"I'd suggest several dozen falcons making regular sweeping patrols from above, and small squads of six fighters patrolling the streets. Perhaps have the commanders, the actual humans, have a small pack of two to five wolves apiece." Naruto suggested. "All in all, you're looking at… maybe sixty falcons, three hundred fighters, and three dozen or more wolves, minimum."

"Can you even make that many?" Akira asked. Those numbers would make a small army, and if they played to their strengths… they might even give some of the smaller ninja villages something of a challenge.

"I can make thousands, possibly more." Naruto told him.

Akira paused, processing that thought and mentally raising the blonde kid a couple of rungs on the 'don't make an enemy of him' ladder. Thousands of those things? Numbers like that could win simply by overwhelming their opponent, and several small ninja villages _could_ be conquered like that.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked, after a period of silence from the man. "If you want to talk about purchasing some of my shikigami another time, it's not difficult to find me."

"Ah, I believe I will do so." Akira agreed, getting his thoughts back in line. "I will discuss things with the other Uchiha and get back to you within the next few days. Farewell for now, Uzumaki."

"Bye." Naruto bid him farewell, before heading into the forest and back home.

xxxxx

"I'm home." Naruto called out upon reaching the clearing his home stood in.

"Hello, Naruto." A youkai smiled at the blonde, making him jump in surprise.

"Riou?" He exclaimed. "I haven't seen you for… a while."

"I've been busy." The local youkai lord told him. "Like I told you years ago, many youkai will come looking for you in order to devour you. I have to keep my territory, and of course my underlings, safe, you know?"

Naruto bowed his head in apology. "I'm sorry for causing you such trouble." He murmured.

Riou laid a hand on Naruto's head and gently ruffled his hair, disturbing Benio from her resting place.

"Nonsense, Naruto." He chuckled. "This sort of thing happens all the time, it's just been more intense recently. Having you here is also a good thing. The amount of reiryoku you're always leaking all over the place has actually strengthened many of the youkai around here, and some of them might even go up in rank if they stay around you."

"Really?" Naruto asks him. "I didn't know I was so 'leaky'."

Riou smiled at him. "Whenever _anyone_ uses a technique of any sort, there's always some excess, no matter how little it is. You might not be wasting very much – in fact I'm almost certain you regain it faster than you lose it – but you _do_ use far more techniques than anyone else."

Naruto thought about that for a moment. Given that he practised his archery every day and used spell arrows for it, and he also used moulded earth weapons in his spars with Takame, he guessed he might go through a lot of power every day. On top of that, of course, was his talisman experiments with Hinoe, and they probably gave off loads of excess, especially when they went wrong.

"So… everything's okay?" Naruto asked hesitantly, and it was times like this that Riou remembered that Naruto _was_ eight years old.

"Yes, everything's fine." He said. "No one has anything more than scrapes and bruises, and with the way youkai keep flocking here..." His eyes slid all around the clearing, seeing literally dozens of youkai flying overhead or lounging in trees. "Well, there's no real danger for us or you."

Naruto clenched his fists and looked Riou right in the eyes. "But there might be, and so I'm going to get stronger until I can protect everyone I care about!" He declared.

There was a moment of silence as many of those around him heard his bold statement, and all could clearly see the determination burning in his young eyes. The serious mood was not to last though.

"Oh, aren't you adorable!" Masami, the kusari-fundo tsukumogami, exclaimed as she tackled him in an enveloping hug. "Oh, I just want to take you home, dress you in pretty kimonos, and-"

"He's not a girl, idiot." Benio scoffed, shifting into her true form. She looked irritated and disheveled, probably from being dislodged from Naruto's head by her enthusiastic greeting.

"He'd still look pretty in a kimono, everything does!" Masami stuck her tongue out at Benio, before getting a mischievous grin on her face. "If that's not an option though, I _guess_ I could always join with him and he could practise wielding me."

With that, she vanished from sight. Naruto, just regaining his senses, felt her settle into his mind. He could also feel a weight in each of his sleeves, and after a moment's thought, a length of chain with a small ball of metal on the end emerged from each sleeve.

' _Oh, is Naruto admiring my pretty form?'_ Masami's words echoed in his head. _'Well I **am** different to Takame, I am far more 'flexible' than she is_ ' The way she said that indicated something far less innocent than simple ease of movement.

Naruto lowered his arm, watching the weighted chain as he worked out how to get it to move how he wanted it to. It wasn't easy, and it took a lot of concentration, but he slowly had it moving in a circle in front of him. The movement was jerky and disjointed, but practise would sort that out.

' _You wanted to practise?'_ Naruto mentally asks Masami. _'Shall we challenge Takame to a spar then?'_

' _Oh, that's brilliant!'_ Masami exclaims. _'Do it! Do it now!'_

With her giggling inside his head, Naruto did just that.

xxxxx

Takame grinned to herself as she dodged the chain that flew straight for her.

Okay, so she was a little unhappy that Masami worked better with Naruto than she did despite how often he practised using _her_ , but she guessed it was simply due to Naruto being a much better mid to long range fighter, and claws didn't really give you a great deal of range.

The metal weight on the end of the chain ricocheted off a tree and came at her again, leaving Takame to dodge out of the way of the ball and the seemingly endless length of chain that was _still_ coming out of Naruto's sleeves. She'd been tricked into a literal cage of metal earlier, and she wouldn't fall for that trick aga-

She dodged an arrow of lightning.

Okay, there was another advantage Naruto had with Masami, he could use her a lot more independently than he could her, and his hands were unoccupied unlike when he wore her.

She dashed forwards and sliced Naruto's forearm open, making him yell out in pain.

"Then again,when _she_ joined with Naruto, her claw form extended along his arms and up to his shoulders – and possibly further in future if they could improve their synchronisation – giving him armour that kept him safe at close range. Naruto's enchanted bracers that he'd made were good, but they weren't anything a tsukumogami like her couldn't cut through.

On the other hand, rather than 'generating' armour for him to wear, Masami's special attribute seemed to be producing endless lengths of chain and controlling the weights on the end with something akin to telekinesis. Thankfully, the chains weren't particularly dexterous and couldn't, for example, wrap themselves around the hilt of a sword and wield it.

Still, they were good for limiting mobility and trapping someone in a disadvantageous position. The two of them had quickly worked that out, and the chains attempted to corral her while Naruto took pot shots at her with his shiki-bow and arrows.

However, Naruto was still Naruto, and he did have a weakness that she could take ruthless advantage of.

She darted up into his face again, kicking his hand, bruising it and dismissing his bow. She'd have kicked it out of his hand, but the charm was around his wrist, and as long as he had that he could keep summoning it.

She rested one of her claws on Naruto's cheek, almost like a lover would, and the other went around his neck, even as she felt chains around them bind the two of them tightly together.

"It's my win, Naruto." She said, her claws drawing the slightest amount of blood from his neck. "You're getting better at hand to hand, but it still remains your weakness. You really need to fix that before an enemy takes advantage of it and kills you."

"I'm trying, Takame, and I will get better." Naruto replied.

"Good." Takame smiled. "Now undo these chains before someone says something inappropriate."

"Too late." Naruto winced. "Masami's been going on and on about it inside my head _constantly_."

Takame smirked lightly. "Now you know how I felt stuck with her and Tetsuyama up in Iron Country."

Naruto grumbled under his breath, before the chain dissipated and Masami appeared behind Naruto, giving Takame a suggestive grin.

"Not a word, pervert." The claw tsukumogami warned her as Naruto yawned, the joining with Masami having really taken it out of him.

"Oh _fine_." Masami huffed. "Spoil my fun, why don't you?"

"Neither myself, nor Naruto – judging by how tired he is – desire to hear your lewd comments right now, Masami." Takame stated.

"Okay, okay!" Masami threw her hands up in surrender. "Let's go put little Naruto to bed."

"An excellent idea." Takame agreed.

"And then crawl in there with him!" Masami finished. "Ow!"

Takame lowered her hand after smacking her companion over the head.

"A _less_ intelligent idea. Not even Benio or Tsurara have attempted that… yet." The claw tsukumogami reluctantly tagged that bit on the end, fully believing that the yuki-onna would attempt to do so at some point in the next few years, most probably during his early teen years.

Takame then directed a stern look at Masami. "And if you did, I'm fairly certain Tsurara would be most… _put out_ with you."

Masami shivered slightly.

That snow woman could have one hell of a temper on her at times.

xxxxx

In Konoha's hospital, Yakumo Kurama sat on her bed.

She wasn't _particularly_ injured, suffering only a minor case of smoke inhalation. Her parents had both suffered some pretty nasty burns in addition to parts of their home collapsing on them and breaking bones.

Apparently, they had been saved by a boy, the same one that had saved the Uchiha clan from complete annihilation. That should have made her happy, that she had her own 'knight in shining armour' - or whatever the hell the Japanese equivalent is – so why… why did she feel so disappointed?

She didn't understand it. Was she going crazy? Was _that_ why Kurenai Yuuhi had told the Hokage to have her kicked from the shinobi program? And that only _after_ she'd been paid with a number of genjutsu that had previously been Kurama clan secrets?

She felt her anger rise, only for her eyes to droop as she was overcome with a sudden surge of sleepiness.

The last thing she saw before she fell asleep on her bed was the evening sky, and she thought of how beautiful it was.

xxxxx

In another part of the Land of Fire, Kurama ran freely through the forest with his fur soaked in blood. He'd sated his blood-lust with a particularly nasty group of bandits that had set up shop on a well-travelled merchant trading route. None of them were in his bingo book though, no. Held in his tails he had the ones who were actually worth a damn, and coincidentally the better fighters as well.

They'd fought so hard that he was going to have to have Naruto create him a new body when he got back to Konoha, he'd drained most of the reserves stored in this shiki-body and needed a recharge.

Heh, maybe he'd bring Naruto with him on his next hunt, him and the brat made a good team. It would also get him away from Konoha, and sage knows just how much trouble the blonde got into if he had nothing to do. It was like he was a magnet for such things.

On the other hand, at least things would never be boring with him around, and Kurama did genuinely enjoy Naruto's company, and was even coming to consider him almost like a brother. Yes, they did mock each other at times, and yes they did get into physical fights and roll around on the ground like children, but all children did that… didn't they?

He certainly remembered 'rough-housing' with Shukaku back when they were only weeks and months old.

Then again, Shukaku was a crazy son of a bitch – or a crazy bitch, the biju _were_ genderless – and comparing anyone to that nut-job wasn't exactly a compliment.

xxxxx

Elsewhere, in Water Country, Isobu swam through the waters between the islands.

He was currently in the form of a slightly larger than average turtle, with no indications he was anything irregular at all. Part of the reason he was here was to be a sort of scout for Naruto, as he'd heard some things about the civil war that was tearing the country apart.

A second part of Isobu wanted to be there to try and find his sibling, Saiken's, host. While they could meet and talk over the mental connection all nine biju share, Saiken's jinchuuriki, a man known as Utakata, had suffered some sort of mental trauma and absolutely refused to even _think_ about the biju trapped inside of him.

Isobu was not happy about this, especially as Saiken was one of the most gentle and reserved of all of the nine biju. He wanted to give the human a piece of his mind! However, that was a rather dumb idea, and Isobu instead considered asking Saiken to think about jumping hosts.

At present, only Isobu himself had transferred himself. Matatabi would if Yugito ever died, but was currently happy to laze about inside of her host. Shukaku… well, none of them had actually heard from the youngest of the nine biju at all, the damn brat seemed to be ignoring them! Son Goku had agreed to transfer over in the event of Roshi's death, as had Kokuo with regards to Han, but niether were in any particular rush to do so. Chomei actually liked her own host, and would only leave her if she died. Even then, 'lucky number seven' would do all she could to keep Fu alive. Gyuki was actually quite fond and friendly with his own host – the rapping aside – and was perfectly content where he was. Kurama was, of course, with Naruto and happy with it.

Now, all he had to do was find something, anything!

He had not thought this through, he'd not really considered just how much slower a regular turtle travelled compared to his true biju form.

Oh, well, slow and steady wins the race, right?


	27. Bounties and Insanity

AN: Okay, a short chapter here, but I'm trying to get them out more frequently. Also, sendings are inspired by the ones from Garth Nix's Old Kingdom Series (wonderful author!) and if anyone has any other ideas I might be able to implement, feel free to suggest them, 'kay? Have fun reading the chapter, and let me know what you think of it please!

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 27 – Bounties and Insanity

Naruto yawned lightly as he stretched. It was early morning, and he'd been awoken by a new package being delivered. On top of that, he'd been up rather late the previous night, so he was not exactly at his best right then. Luckily, it was a Saturday, and the Ninja Academy was only five days a week, like the civilian school was.

"What is it?" He asked Tsuyukami tiredly.

"Something else for the cellar by the looks of things." The masked youkai told him. "Hopefully it won't be as nasty as that cursed baby skull you were sent two months ago."

Naruto grimaced at that, recalling the item in question. After the stuff he'd raided from that Flesh Beast in Lightning Country, word had got around the youkai that Naruto was storing away all of the stuff they neither needed nor wanted, and he'd been sent or given quite a substantial amount of random junk. With all of that, however, were some pretty distasteful and malevolent things that he kept securely shut up in his cellar beneath his cabin.

Picking up the object in question, Naruto could quite easily feel the sheer wrongness that just oozed off it. It wasn't as bad as some of the stuff in his cellar, but it was probably at least painful, if not lethal, if it was used. A quick look identified the object as some sort of goblet, and after reading the note that came with it, it apparently turned anything poured into it mildly poisonous, though whether that was mildly poisonous to a youkai or a human… well, he had no intention of finding out.

Heading out of his cabin and around the side, Naruto sliced his thumb open and swiped his blood across the chains holding the door closed. They rattled for a moment before retreating into the earth and allowing Naruto to open the door to his cellar.

Once inside, he looked around at the numerous shelves and tables that were covered in some of the dangerous and unpleasant objects. There was a whole shelf of books that were covered in human skin, clamped shut and chained to the shelves. One of them, he recalled, was rather insidious in that it stole the memories of those that read it, and once the book was full, left the reader as mindless as a newborn baby.

A series of weapons hung from another wall. The lance that had originally come from the Flesh Beast's lair was there, and it was discovered that any injury caused by it was slow to heal, but the more it was used the more it tried to force its wielder into madness.

A sword next to forced the wielder to kill every time it was drawn before they could let it go. If someone went too long without killing, it forced them to take their own lives. There were other weapons there, with various effects, but Naruto noticed that all of them tended to have some pretty nasty effects, _especially_ those that had positive effects too.

Like that talisman hanging on a hook over there. That granted the wearer immense strength, speed, and durability, but it also slowly transformed the wearer into a ravening beast over the course of a few months, and it could not be removed once worn until the process was complete.

Then there were things like that altar – and how exactly that had ended up in front of his cabin, Naruto had no idea – that used live sacrifices to summon demons. The more sacrifices, the stronger the demon it summoned. However, it granted no control over them at all.

Of course, not _everything_ that Naruto had received had some sort of malicious use. In fact, he'd gotten plenty of useful things sent his way as well. Some of the books, for example, described useful techniques that he could use, or were simply well written fiction.

One of the books included the process for creating 'sendings', which Naruto thought were like stronger, more advanced shikigami. Granted, he hadn't had much success making them so far, as they were far less forgiving than his shiki were, and they did require better materials.

Whereas he could scrawl a shikigami on a random scrap of paper in seconds, a sending was constructed of silver wire, and took at least a month to make just one. He had four melted piles of silver to show for his first four attempts at creating sendings, totalling five months of effort wasted, but he was hopeful that his most recent attempt would be successful.

Anyway, Naruto walked through the store room beneath his cabin and set the newest addition between two other goblets, one which was constantly filled with a viscous, green-brown fluid no matter how often it was emptied, and another that spat its contents in the face of whoever tried to drink from it.

With that done, he headed back out of his cellar, past an alcove that contained a full set of cursed armour, and idly noted that he was probably going to have to expand this place again fairly soon because of how full it was getting. Youkai seemed to have so much random stuff that they were quite happy to dump on him that Naruto often wondered where they kept it all.

"Any plans for today?" Tsuyukami asked once Naruto sealed the cellar behind himself.

"The usual." Naruto replied. "I've got my daily sparring sessions with Takame and, now that she's joining in, Masami. Me and Hinoe will also be doing some work on the sending too, and the kappa will want to play around for a while as well." He paused in thought. "By the way, did you find out anything about that girl from the fire?"

"I did." Tsuyukami nodded. "Yakumo Kurama, aged ten, is the heiress of the Kurama clan, which is famous for having such strong genjutsu that they blur the line between reality and illusion. However, the clan has become somewhat less well known, especially in the last sixty or so years, as their clan members seem to be born with less and less potential.

"Yakumo Kurama, however, either by chance or by experimentation – as some rumours go – was born with incredibly high potential for genjutsu, though this was sort of balanced out with a frail body and some health issues. She was taken as an apprentice of sorts by one Kurenai Yuuhi, a special jounin who focuses on genjutsu.

"Yakumo was deemed unstable though, and unsuitable to the kunoichi lifestyle. Because of this, her chakra was sealed up and she was turned away from the shinobi program. It was shortly after this that the fire occurred, one which almost cost her parents' their lives."

Naruto hummed to himself for a moment, before asking. "Why was she deemed 'unstable'?"

"What little I could get hold of referred to an 'Ido' demon that possesses her and makes her rather aggressive." Tsuyukami explained. "Just _how_ she became possessed is unknown, but it is a generally accepted fact that she has some sort of demonic other personality within her."

"She's not possessed, by either a youkai or a demon." Naruto frowned. "I'd have noticed if she was. No, the feeling I got from her was more like… there was two of _her_ not her and a passenger within her body. Do you think it's possible for a split personality to be that… complete?"

"If we were talking purely reiryoku, then yes." Tsuyukami answered him. "Though rare, there have been cases in the past where an 'imaginary friend' has become real, and that's sometimes how youkai are formed. As far as chakra goes… well, genjutsu is considered the 'mental' arts of the ninjas, maybe it's some sort of self-genjutsu construct or something." Tsuyukami shrugged. "Do you remember what it was you sensed from both parts of her?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, there was fear, confusion, sadness, and depression coming from one part. The other was all anger, rage, and betrayal." He considered this for a moment. "Are you thinking that she's somehow split her personality in two? One half taking on all of her aggressive emotions or something?"

"It's possible." Tsuyukami agreed. "However, I can't believe that such a thing is… mentally healthy for a human. Some types of youkai exist like that naturally, but humans are all about balance and diversity. It must be putting quite a bit of strain on her maintaining that, assuming it's true of course."

"Any way we could find out?" Naruto asked.

"Not that I know of." Tsuyukami shook his head. "It's hard to possess a human with a split personality, and the only way to conclusively prove it would be to, well, rip them in two." He seemed a little uncomfortable at that. "If a human's psyche is _that_ split, it's possible to separate them permanently."

Naruto gave him a curious expression, silently asking him to elaborate.

"It was a sort of… sport, centuries ago." He explained. "Youkai would actively search out broken and damaged humans, commonly rape victims, and tear them in two. They would then force the two separate halves to fight one another to the death. It was a barbaric practise, and it's mostly disappeared these days, but… it used to be quite common."

"So it was like those underground dog fighting arenas that happen amongst humans?" Naruto asked.

"Very much so." A voice made the two of them spin around, spotting Riou walking towards them. "Though there's also another, actually legal, human equivalent as well. I believe you would know it as the 'Chunin exams'. I've seen them force children to fight one another as both a show of strength, and for profit too."

"Lord Riou." Tsuyukami greeted the youkai, bowing his head to him. Naruto gave a far more brief nod of greeting, both less concerned about propriety and more intent on what Riou had just said.

"The Chunin exams?" He prodded.

"They turn up in this village every few years, and I've seen half a dozen or so." Riou told him. "The first time, I was drawn to the crowds of humans, and arrived in time to see a child no older than twelve burn his opponent to death with some sort of fire technique."

Naruto winced. Having practised with fire, he knew how much burns hurt. Being burnt alive couldn't be a very pleasant way to go.

"Is Naruto going to be expected to participate in these 'Chunin exams'?" Tsuyukami asked in concern.

"Probably." Riou affirmed. "They are a show of strength after all, and a jinchuuriki is not something to be taken lightly. That arena fighting is the third round though, if I remember correctly, but I have no idea what the other two would be like."

Tsuyukami and Naruto fell silent for a moment, both worried about the future.

"Anyway, have either of you seen Hinoe yet this morning?" Riou asked them. "I found another one of that detestable Orochimaru's labs and Hinoe is supposed to be the one going through all of the things found in them."

"No, but I'll let her know you're looking when I see her later." Naruto replied. He already knew Hinoe was going through Orochimaru's abandoned research notes. That was where she'd learned as much as she had about human fuinjutsu, and a little about high level ninjutsu theory too. The biological mutation research wasn't very useful though, and reading it was rather sickening.

"Thank you." Riou said. "In that case, I have some rambunctious underlings to deal with. Tell her I'll be where I usually am, she'll know where to find me." With that, he bid the two farewell before leaving the clearing and disappearing amongst the trees.

Tsuyukami and Naruto watched him go for a few moments, before heading for the field to pick some fresh fruit and veg. A single shikigami talisman was activated as well and told to check his traps and snares for any fresh meat too. Tsuyukami was amused by the wide variety of food that was available in Naruto's field, as well as the quantity of it.

"That's out of season." He indicated a fruit bush. "And that one isn't native to Fire Country." He indicated a small group of fruit trees, several of which were foreign varieties.

Naruto just gave him a flat look. "With me working together with the kodama spirits around here, is it really that surprising that I can grow things that wouldn't normally flourish here and at this time of year? Besides, they enjoy the variety just as much as I enjoy their produce."

"I was actually thinking of any humans that might visit here." Tsuyukami corrected Naruto. "Akiko might know the truth, and this area might be warded against humans, but there will probably be times humans will end up here. Disabling the seal that allows regular people to see youkai might keep us secret, but if the Hokage or someone else came here, they might notice things aren't as they appear and that could raise some unwanted questions."

Naruto paused to consider that. The seal that allowed humans to see youkai was mostly for Akiko's benefit, and it _did_ automatically deactivate if an human not keyed in was brought into the clearing, but that did nothing to hide the other odd things that weren't youkai. That included the stuff in his cellar, if anyone ever managed to force their way in there.

"There's not much I can do about that." Naruto eventually replied. "I mean, it's not like anyone other than Akiko really comes here. The _only_ other humans that have been here are the Hokage and that Anbu woman he sent along with me, and it's not like humans can just stumble into here, or even find it if they were searching. The barrier keeps all humans but Akiko out, you know that."

"I'm not saying it's a major concern or anything." Tsuyukami said. "It's just something to keep in mind if there ever is an occasion where you bring more humans here, specifically humans that don't know about your unique situation, okay?"

"Okay." Naruto nodded his head.

"Now, let's head inside and see if Minako is up and about yet. If not, let's see what we can put together for breakfast, ne?" Tsuyukami suggested, heading towards Naruto's cabin.

Smiling, the blonde followed him.

xxxxx

Several hours later, Kurama finally returned to Naruto's cabin. He still had the bounties wrapped in his tails, but dumped them in a pile next to Naruto, who was trying to work through making a sending. Currently, he was making an arm out of silver wire, weaving it together to make a framework, a kind of 3d model that was the equivalent of a shikigami's paper talisman.

"Those stink." Naruto commented.

Kurama raised an eyebrow. " **They're corpses, and Fire Country is rather warm, of course they stink.** "

Naruto sighed. "True. So, how much are they worth?"

" **Not a great deal.** " Kurama grumbled. " **B rank and higher bounties aren't exactly very common, you know. Most of these are C rank, though I think one or two of them are a low B. I remember them from that bingo book you got from the bounty office.** "

Naruto hummed in response for a moment, carefully building up the silver wire arm.

"I'll take them to the bounty office later. You okay to give me a ride there? I can go by hirenkyaku if you don't, but it'd be nice to just chat with you for a while. You've spent a lot of time out of Konoha lately, hunting down one bounty or another." Naruto asked.

" **I enjoy it, it's fun.** " Kurama shrugged. " **Do you have any time off from that Academy of yours? We could go hunting together, I heard a rumour about some sort of pirate trouble on the coast to the west.** "

"I've got a week off next month, if I remember right." Naruto mused, idly wondering why a ninja school even had the same regular holidays as a civilian school did. "If you're here then, I'll ride with you."

" **I'll try and remember to be back in time for it.** " Kurama agreed. " **Now, what's this you're working on? It looks like the framework for a mannequin or something**."

"Oh yeah, you haven't seen my previous attempts at making a sending, have you?" Naruto chuckled. "Well, it's called a 'sending' and it's basically a much improved shikigami. It takes at least a month to complete one, and if you make even one mistake you've got to start again from scratch, but they _should_ be able to completely wipe the floor with a few platoons of regular shikigami."

" **So like a decent chunin against a group of genin then?** " Kurama clarified.

"Pretty much, though these might have the potential to be even stronger in comparison." Naruto confirmed. "It's not like I know what I'm doing too well yet. After all, my first shikigami were barely good enough to fight a regular civilian, they've come a long way since then."

" **Yes, now they can be taken out by the average genin.** " Kurama scoffed. Inwardly, however, he knew that Naruto could produce enough shiki to drown an army of genin in sheer numbers. He also knew that Naruto knew this, and was aware that Kurama was also smart enough to realise this, and so didn't do anything more than roll his eyes at the fox.

Was that as confusing to read as it was to type?

Anyway, back to Naruto slowly twisting strands of silver wire together to make what, to any modern day school kid, looked like the basis of a paper mâché model. He was quite focused on his task. Not to the exclusion of all else, that would make him jump if someone spoke and he hadn't realised they were there, leading to him probably wrecking the sending and having to start all over again.

He'd already failed four times, and silver wire wasn't that easy to buy in bulk, he wasn't going to fail a fifth time if he had anything to say about it!

Kurama tidied away the corpses he'd brought for Naruto to cash in the bounty – while transformed as someone else of course – and settled down to watch Naruto work on his creations. They weren't his style, Kurama much preferred dealing damage more directly, but he could still appreciate how much time and effort Naruto invested in his own skills and training.

There wasn't enough raw destruction for his tastes, but to each their own.

xxxxx

Taro looked up as the door opened., admitting what was undoubtedly a ninja. After all, only ninja – both village and missing – ever really entered a bounty office. As it turned out, it was someone that Taro was becoming increasingly familiar with.

Wearing a tan coloured cloak with a hood over his head, the man's features were cast into shadow. However, he could still see the slight tan on the man's skin, the locks of dark blue hair that peeked out from under the hood, and those slitted amber eyes were unmistakeable.

"Shinji." Taro greeted the man using the only name he knew the man by.

Shinji simply bowed his head in greeting, never speaking. Taro had never heard a single word pass the man's lips, and as eerie as it was at times, especially how he seemed to appear out of nowhere and disappear just as easily, he was also one of the easiest bounty hunters that he dealt with.

Shinji placed a leather bag on the counter, and Taro pulled out an up to date bingo book. He pulled human heads out of the bag, quickly and efficiently matching them up to the various bounties in the book. He marked down the values of them as he went, and the reference number attached to each one.

He couldn't help but pay attention to the expressions on the faces of the heads. Like most he'd received off this particular bounty hunter, they looked shocked, surprised, and horrified. However, the cuts at the neck were some of the cleanest he'd ever seen, implying an incredibly sharp blade.

Taro had worked the bounty office for decades, through two ninja wars even, and he could tell that something strange was going on with this particular bounty hunter. Call it a gut feeling, intuition, or whatever you want, but Taro had a feeling that Shinji – and he doubted that was the man's true name anyway – was not your average bounty hunter.

Aside from the fact that he was never seen around the Elemental Nations – and this avoided gaining a bounty of his own – he seemed to strike randomly around the continent. On top of that, he didn't really seem that concerned about the bounties themselves, and he also didn't come across as one of those blood-thirsty psychopaths that revelled bloodshed.

"I heard a rumour recently." Taro told Shinji. "There's been some raids up near the north-western border of Fire Country. They haven't been attacking any of the richer towns and villages, so the reward isn't particularly high, but that also means news hasn't spread that far just yet."

Shinji paused for a moment, before pulling a small leather money pouch from within his cloak and placing it on the counter. He nodded his head, collected his reward money, waved goodbye, and left the building.

Taro opened the money pouch, finding a reasonable, but not extravagant number of coins within.

That was another reason he liked dealing with this particular bounty hunter, he tipped rather well. As long as he had some decent information, he could always count on getting a little something for his troubles, and it wasn't difficult for a man in his position to come across interesting titbits of information.

Heck, he remembered being tipped more than this that time he'd told Shinji about some rumours of old, abandoned temples out in Swamp and Fang country. He'd also gotten a sizeable tip for giving the man some information on some strange relics that he'd heard about.

His coin was good, and getting the information wasn't hard. What was there not to like about that?

xxxxx

Several flashes of blue light later and 'Shinji' had vanished into a nearby forest.

Cancelling the transformation revealed Naruto hefting the coin bag he'd just collected. He mentally added the amount of money he'd just gained from Kurama's bounty kills to what he had at home and wondered if he should take a short trip to the capital.

You could get almost _anything_ in the capital for the right price. The black market was also useful for getting your hands on some restricted substances. He'd gotten some rather rare seeds from Wind Country there, and it'd been quite expensive, but he now had some poisons and herbs growing in his field that were most definitely not native to Fire Country.

It was, however, far harder to get hold of anything to do with ninja and their techniques. While the various villages might covertly encourage and make use of the black market, they also tried to control it as much as they could, with limited success.

Naruto had managed to acquire a book on chakra strings and puppets, a very _basic_ one, that had given him a few ideas on how to use Masami's chains in interesting ways, and another book on poison ninjutsu, like the poison cloud jutsu that he could quite easily emulate, but those were the only ones he'd been able to get for himself.

"Thinking hard there?" Tsurara asked, draping herself across his shoulders.

"Just wondering if I might head to the Capital before going home." Naruto answered her.

"Hmm, some more cloth and thread, perhaps?" Tsurara suggested. "You can never have too many clothes, and you are becoming decently skilled with needle and thread."

"I was actually considering more esoteric materials, but you're right." Naruto agreed. "I do kinda enjoy making clothes, it's relaxing."

"And I enjoy wearing some of your results." Tsurara smiled. "That kimono you made me might need some more adjustments though." She shot him a sly look. "I'd be happy to model it for you and show you _exactly_ where needs your attention."

Naruto snorted. "You just want me to stare at you while you dance."

She chuckled warmly. "Not _just_ stare, Naruto." She told him. "I'm sure you could get your hands _all_ over me as well."

Naruto just rolled his eyes and huffed a laugh. He _did_ glance away from her, and if one were to look closely, they would see the slightest of heat in his cheeks. Eight years old or not, Naruto knew what Tsurara was constantly suggesting with her flirting, and aside from that, he did find her fond affection quite endearing by itself.

Tsurara, as it so happened, _did_ notice Naruto's ever so slight blush and her eyes gleamed brightly. She didn't comment on it though, she wasn't going to push any further right then. Tsurara wasn't stupid, and she knew if she pushed too hard and too fast, she'd do more harm than good in her slow seduction of the boy.

Tsurara then focused hard for a moment, the temperature plummeting temporarily as a result, before an eight year old version of herself appeared in the middle of the frozen circle of grass. Daintily stepping forward she wrapped her arms around Naruto's own limb.

For a moment, she missed her modest bust, but breasts would look ridiculous on an eight year old. Still, she surprised Naruto, and grinned at him with a mouth containing pristine, shining teeth.

"Maybe we could wander around like this?" She suggested mischievously.

"Are you visible to humans like that?" He asked.

"Of course." She told him. "I might be weaker than I would be purely as a spirit, especially in such a warm place as Fire Country, but I _am_ a yuki-onna, and we as a species aren't weak by any means."

She didn't tell him that it would be more difficult for her if she hadn't been growing stronger from the ambient reiryoku he radiated almost constantly. Not a great deal more difficult, but give it a few decades and she would be significantly stronger than most other yuki-onna her age.

"Let's go then." Naruto smiled, taking a moment to transform his hair colour to black, his eyes to green, and make his whisker marks – which had been getting more pronounced recently – disappear.

With that done, the two disappeared in a flash of blue light, leaving a frosty clearing behind them.

xxxxx

Back in Konoha, with no Naruto to follow around at present, Benio wandered the streets of the human settlement. She was becoming more familiar with the place thanks to going to school with Naruto five days a week, but just like Naruto, the forest would always be her home.

Of course, she did find some things intriguing about humans. Naruto had once bought her a box of puzzle games as a gift and she'd spent weeks figuring them all out. She'd enjoyed it as well, much to her own surprise, and she still played around with them to find new solutions.

That 'Rubik's cube' was her favourite though.

She paused as she saw a young girl, a little older than Naruto, wandering around outside the hospital. She recognised her immediately as that girl that Naruto pulled out of that big burning house the other day. If she remembered right, her name was Yakumo Kurama, and Tsuyukami had explained a few theories he and Naruto had discussed earlier that morning at breakfast.

' _She doesn't look like much'_ Benio thought to herself, seeing nothing but a frail little girl with average brown hair and eyes. She wasn't even reacting to Benio's presence, showing none of the awareness of youkai that Naruto had going for him. Still, if she did have such a split personality, she might prove to be at least mildly amusing.

How to test it though…

Ah! Benio grinned evilly, stepping up to Yakumo and whispered in her ear. It didn't really matter what she said though, simply making sure she sounded vaguely threatening.

When the girl jumped a mile in the air and span around, she began whispering comforting words in her other ear.

Switching sides and tones several times, Benio quite enjoyed the panic showing in the girl's eyes. Say what you will, but youkai were products of belief and the subconscious, and so it was very common for them to be, at the very least, pranksters, and there was nothing inherently malicious about it, it was simply their nature.

"No!" Yakumo cried. "I'm not going crazy. I'm not! Kurenai is wrong, I'm stable, I'm not insane… I'm not."

That last bit was said so plaintively that Benio felt a little bad about what she'd just done, but it proved one thing at least. This girl, if nothing else, denied insanity, and as almost anyone can tell you, humans deny what they can't face. It wasn't conclusive, not by a long way, but it did support their theories a little.

Now, if only she could work out a way to draw out her possible 'other side'...


	28. A Revelation

AN: Sorry about the short chapter and the long delay, I've just been so busy lately that I don't really have the time for much of anything really. Even my Birthday (Sunday just gone if anyone's asking) was spent fitting a new bath in the house, and given just how tiny our bathroom is that was a nightmare. Now, there's two things I'd like to address in this AN that's popped up in forums and reviews. First off, Henge. I know that it's kinda canon that it's an actual physical transformation, not an illusion, but that's honestly ridiculous. You're telling me that even Sakura, who has tiny reserves, can _physically_ transform into anything or anyone she can imagine? No, I prefer my way of doing things. To me, the henge is a kind of chakra balloon that surrounds you and reflects and/or refracts light to make things look different. _HOWEVER_ , I will also add the caveat that someone with enough chakra can 'fill' that balloon, making it a rubber ball instead. In other words, a physical transformation. So yes, Gamabunta has enough chakra to look like Kurama, and Naruto has enough to become a shuriken, etcetera, etcetera, but they are exceptions, not the rule. Secondly, Naruto being incapable of using standard chakra and ninja techniques. Okay, when Naruto first started learning to cast spells, he was using pure reiryoku, one half of chakra. Now, aside from simply learning it this way, his 'chakra' has settled and 'evolved' this way, like how people change during puberty. Naruto _might_ be able to use chakra by mixing the two energies together, but it will be nigh impossible due to the two energies no longer being bound and growing apart, like magnets. All magnets have a north and south pole, are connected in the middle, and repel each other if identical ends are facing each other. So consider Naruto's 'chakra' a magnet that's broken in two and repels each other. With enough power, you can force them together, but it'll be difficult to use and maintain it like that.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 28 – A Revelation

Naruto's eyes flickered open and he sat up in bed.

Looking around for the possible cause, his gaze was drawn to the window and the sky beyond.

Blue-purple clouds the colour of bruises drifted through an oily black sky, casting dim red shadows over the forest beneath them, and the trees themselves… twisted, sickly mockeries of life, almost crystalline in appearance with sharp, glinting points reaching towards the darkened heavens.

Getting up and out of bed, Naruto reached for his bedside table and slipped his shiki-bow charm bracelet on, doing the same with his archery bracers. A few moments later he took a cloak off the hook on the back of his bedroom door and slipped that on as well.

Stepping quietly into the hallway outside his room, Naruto was unnerved by the silence. No matter the time of day or night, there were _always_ youkai about, always doing _something_. But right now, he couldn't even hear the sounds of leaves rustling in the breeze, or the whisper of the wind outside.

Slipping on a pair of simple shoes, Naruto left his house, looking around.

The fire pit was cold and dark, something that hadn't happened ever since that kosenjobi had started hanging around like a pet. Of the youkai in question, there was no sign of them even having been there at all. There was nothing to show that _anyone_ had been there at all.

Glancing back at his cabin, the blonde didn't see Madara napping on the roof as the inugami sometimes did, and there were no kodama spirits hanging around his cultivated plants, bushes, and trees. There wasn't even any of the tengu that liked resting in the trees around the clearing.

When he looked, the home he'd crafted for the inchlings was smashed into pieces. Thankfully, there was no blood, but the whole thing looked like it had been struck with great force, scattering the broken pieces off into the nearby forest.

A wet squelch sound made Naruto pause and look down.

He saw that he'd stepped in some dark red-black substance, a puddle which slowly grew larger as more of it dripped down from above him.

Calling his shiki-bow and putting a lightning arrow on the string, Naruto aimed upwards, before freezing in place.

A youkai of relatively human appearance was impaled on the branches of the spindly trees. One branch stuck through its throat, one in each forearm, and a fourth in the groin kept it suspended like some sort of macabre puppet. Its face though… it had been torn off, leaving a gaping hole from which the dark blood spilled.

Keeping his bile down as best he could, Naruto tried to work out what the hell was going on. He remembered going to sleep the night before, and now he'd woken up here like this. This was either some sort of weird alternate world he'd been dragged into, or it wasn't real.

Of course, just because something wasn't real, it didn't mean it couldn't hurt him. Beyond that, the border between the waking world and dreams was a dangerous, ever-shifting one.

That still didn't help him much, but just thinking about it like that helped calm him down a bit. It was with this new calm of mind that he called forth a minor light spell. The bright ball of light hovered just above and behind his left shoulder, illuminating more of the forest around him.

With this new light, he could now see more corpses of various youkai scattered amongst the trees. Some, like the one already mentioned, where strung up amongst the tree branches, like some sort of message or warning. Others were simply laid around on the ground, large chunks of them missing like something had taken bites out of them.

More than half of those on the ground were unrecognisable because of the damage done to them.

Reaching into an inside pocket of his cloak, after dismissing his current arrow, Naruto pulled out a pack of wolf shikigami and activated them, calling a total of a dozen shiki to his side. Two of them he instructed to stay beside him and protect him, while he sent the other ten to search out anything they could find.

A giggle emanated from the trees.

Naruto span around and raised his bow, an arrow already knocked on the string. The wolf shiki standing either side of him growled and prepared themselves to pounce.

Another brief sound of laughter came from another direction.

Naruto immediately trained his bow on the noise, before lowering it. His eyes slid from side to side, trying to catch sight of movement, anything that would reveal who or what it was that was laughing amongst so much death.

In response to Naruto's desires, his conjured ball of light grew larger and brighter. It hovered higher in the air, illuminating even more of the forest around him. The light threw the dead bodies around him into sharp relief, allowing every gory detail to be clearly visible.

Naruto gagged at the sight, forcing bile back down his throat at the tortured and defiled corpses. Several of them had their eyes torn out, alive judging by the clawing nail marks around their empty sockets, and others had their tongues, entrails, and more violently torn from their bodies. One body he could see had been wrapped in barbed wire and dangled from a low branch, and there were many more who had been literally torn limb from limb.

"Do you like it?"

Naruto threw himself to the ground at hearing a voice right by his ear. Twisting around, he saw something which made his skin turn as pale as snow.

His female demon copy.

"W-what?" Naruto managed to stammer out as his shiki-wolves placed themselves between Naruto and his opposite.

"Do you like it?" The demon asked, gesturing at everything around them. "Your reaction was rather disappointing, I was hoping for more fear and less reasoning, but you managed to hold yourself together, and even kept from vomiting at the presents I'd left you."

"Why?" Naruto asked her.

"Truthfully? I was hoping you'd be so horrified as to lose control a little and let me take over." 'Naruko' admitted. "I'd have added the youkai you are closer to, but those memories are too cherished for me to get at them just yet."

She turned her angry gaze on Naruto.

"I want you to break, Naruto Uzumaki." She growled at him. "You may have made me, but _I_ belong to no one. I will be free, whether that takes five years or fifty, and I will take great pleasure in destroying any bonds you may use to come back to yourself.

"When I am through with you, there will be nothing left of Naruto Uzumaki, nothing but a broken and destroyed mind, fit for nothing more than keeping _me_ going." She declared.

"Keeping you going?" Naruto's eyes shot open as he had an epiphany. "I created you! You're dependant on my continued existence to keep existing yourself!"

He was forced to dodge away from the demon as she brought her foot down in a devastating axe kick, cratering the ground for several metres around and destroying his shiki wolves like they weren't even there.

She looked furious, whether at Naruto for his realisation or herself for letting it slip was unclear. What was apparent was that her seemingly 'chatty' mood was no more, and he had better get ready to defend himself.

There was no time for words, no declarations, demands, questions, or even an attempt at a distraction. Naruko was fast, and she was strong. No sooner had Naruto dodged out of her way than she delivered a rage-fuelled blow that destroyed something with each hit, whether that be a tree, a corpse, or simply the ground itself.

Her physical speed and strength far outmatched Naruto's, and each time he escaped by the barest of margins, he tried to figure a way out of whatever was going on. He couldn't dodge forever, and every time he tried to force himself awake – if he was truly dreaming – he failed.

It was as he flashed away in a flicker of blue light, that Naruto decided to try and fight his demonic counterpart. Running was useless, dodging could only work for so long, and all that was left was to confront the problem. With this in mind, he conjured up his shiki bow and a lightning arrow for the string.

Naruko dodged the arrow with contemptuous ease. The following volley of arrows was likewise avoided.

Firing as rapidly as he could, Naruto multiplied the arrows in flight as he went. Each time he released the string, one arrow of lightning would become twenty, firing in a cone like spread in front of him. This wasn't enough though, as the demon seemed to flow like water around his every shot.

If the situation wasn't what it was, he'd have called her graceful and elegant in her movements.

As it was, that ethereal grace only served to enhance the deadly and predatory nature of his opponent. Flickering around the forest in flashes of blue light, releasing a small torrent of elemental arrows as he went, Naruto's relentless pursuer continued to avoid every single one of his attacks.

Arrows of lightning and fire dodged. Conjured darts of pure reiryoku were slapped aside. Elemental balls of energy were avoided. Streams of fire as useful as silly string. Shikigami were torn apart.

All while the sickly forest was destroyed under the raw strength of the demon's blows.

The trees, catching alight from Naruto's repeated use of lightning and fire techniques, illuminated the demon with flickering light. Casting her features in dancing light and shadow, she appeared both tempestuously beautiful and ominously malevolent at the same time.

Naruto's arms began to ache from the repeated volleys of arrows he'd fired again and again at his counterpart, though his shots weren't coming any less frequently or with any less accuracy or force behind them. Still, he was human, and a young one at that, humans had limits, even ninja.

"Feeling tired, _Na~ru~to?_ " Naruko's sing-song voice and casual attitude appeared to have returned. "Don't worry, just hold still and let me eat you. It will all be over so soon, who knows, it might not even hurt."

She stalked towards him, but Naruto wasn't going to just give up. Stomping hard on the ground, spikes erupted around him. Naruko simply leapt up and balanced with incredible grace on one of them. The blonde boy wasn't finished though, and slamming his palm into the earth, he pulled, dragging a massive club made of stone with him.

Swinging the club, or more accurately swinging _himself_ with the club, he attacked the demon mirror of himself. As he expected, she taunted him by landing lightly on the club, the kanabo, that he'd created, and was immediately pierced through the feet as the club exploded with spikes.

She screamed, though whether in surprise, pain, or anger, Naruto couldn't tell. Her blazing eyes told him she was angry though, absolutely furious. She darted forward, faster than Naruto could react, and drove her hand up and under his ribs, instantly getting a grip right on his heart.

He gasped.

He could literally feel her arm, slick with his blood, piercing his body, reaching up and around his organs, and squeezing his heart. He was panicking, his breath coming in short, sharp bursts, and his heart was beating erratically, causing him immense pain.

He looked right into her angry eyes.

His sight flickered for a moment, one instant seeing her, another showing him his bedroom. He saw her again. His room. Her. His room. Her. His room. Again and again, he felt like he was going to have some sort of fit as he felt an unpleasant mix of bile and blood rise in his throat as his vision flickered madly.

His arms felt weighted down and weak. His legs were unresponsive. All he could feel was her hand around his heart. All he could see was his demonic counterparts eyes filled with anger, rage, and… despair?

Blackness seemed to crowd the edges of his vision as everything became blurry. Sounds faded away, becoming indistinct, and sensations soon began to follow. The only one that remained was her hand still impaled in his gut, reaching up and crushing the life out of him.

Was this how he was going to die? That couldn't be right, she needed him alive to exist, even in anger she wouldn't outright kill him, would she? Or was this all in his head? A mental death that would leave him an empty shell for her to possess and do with as she wished?

This was… honestly pathetic.

That was all Naruto could think. He'd created the problem, his demon half, and he was utterly incapable of doing anything about it. He knew of no humans who knew how to deal with demons permanently, not in this day and age, and while he'd scoured all of the books that youkai the length and breadth of the Elemental Nations had sent him, all he'd really learned was how to use demonic power and how to summon demons, neither of which he really wanted to do without knowing more about demons themselves.

He'd already made that mistake once.

His vision failing, Naruto could no longer make out the demon as anything more than a vaguely yellow blob, though his sight was still flickering. Either way, there was nothing he could do, not one thin-

xxxxx

Naruto sat up with a great gasping breath.

His eyes wildly darting around, they eventually settled on Tsurara straddling his body with both of her hands pressed to his stomach. Looking down, coughing up blood as he did so, he saw a film of frost and ice keeping the hole in his abdomen closed.

Takame and Masami soon rushed in with the first aid kit, unrolling gauze and bandages that were immediately wrapped around his stomach to stop the injury becoming any worse than it already was. Reaching for the wound, Naruto stopped as he saw just how much his hand was shaking.

"Of all the times for Benio to be busy elsewhere." Takame growled. Benio was the one amongst them that knew the most first aid, but she'd been absent the last few nights, claiming to have found something of a hobby to keep her occupied recently.

Masami grabbed Naruto's shaking hand and tried to calm him down. There was no joking, no mock seduction, nor any of her usual antics, just her speaking nonsense in soothing tones. She talked about anything and everything, the first thing that came into her mind, whether that be her dying some of the villagers' underwear luminous green, a rather beautiful flower she'd seen the week before, or her thoughts on the migratory patterns of birds.

It all came out a jumbled mess, but it nevertheless managed to gain Naruto's attention and hold it.

Masami calmed down a little seeing Naruto's eyes following her face, at least, enough to ask him just what the hell had just happened. People just _don't_ suddenly have torn holes appearing in their bodies, whether they be human _or_ youkai. At least, not without a rather nasty curse being involved.

He told her, in a voice that was far weaker than an eight year old child's had any right to be. He told her of what the demon had said, and of the revelation about it's nature he had had.

Masami's worry instantly sky-rocketed. After all, what could they do? Naruto had received injuries and nightmares from his demonic counterpart before, but never anything more than bruises, shallow cuts, and what amounted to superficial injuries. They had been easy to heal with his demonic healing technique, as they had resisted all other methods of healing, but it wasn't like any of them were particularly dangerous even without that.

This proved that Naruko was far more dangerous than had previously been thought. She was still around, somehow, despite being 'killed' years ago when Naruto had first created her. She was able to directly influence Naruto's mind and body, something most youkai were only able to do with possession.

She held onto him as he reached for his injuries with one shaking hand, laying it on his abdomen and casting his demonic healing spell on himself. Underneath the bandages, tendrils of flesh grew from his frayed body, lashing across the hole made in his chest under his ribcage, and quickly tying themselves together and smoothing over the surface to leave only a scar behind.

Tilting his head to the side, Naruto spat out a few drops of the black substance that always turned up when he used his demonic technique and settled down to get comfortable. His internal injuries were harder to heal than the entrance wound and would drain him more than that one had.

He didn't go to sleep though, no, he didn't think he could at present. He didn't know if he would awaken in that strange, twisted world his demon counterpart inhabited and he wasn't eager to find out. It didn't help that she was his perfect counter; too fast for his arrows, too skilled for hand to hand, and too strong for his shikigami to take down.

But… he'd also noticed what she lacked. She used no techniques, either his own or her own variations. She was very direct, even her chosen methods of intimidation and her ways of freaking him out were relatively simple, yet quite effective all the same. She also fell for traps rather easily, like what he did with that club and the spikes.

She really was his 'opposite', as the incantation used to create had turned out to mean, or 'mould reflection' to be completely accurate. With such a vague wording, and him simply throwing power into it, he shouldn't have been surprised that he'd gotten her. A reflection wasn't perfect after all, what was left for you was right for your reflection, 'opposites' as it were.

xxxxx

Several hours later, Naruto had finished repairing the damage Naruko had done and had strengthened the muscle to match everything around it. After all, just because the muscle existed around his heart didn't mean it had the strength necessary to keep up when he started exerting himself.

Masami and Tsurara had gradually regained their teasing edges as the hours wore on, but neither of them were back in top form just yet, and when Naruto and Takame started getting ready for their morning spar, the pair of them did make to speak, possibly to argue against them doing so, but neither of them did so in the end.

Naruto knew that he wasn't going to stop training because of an injury like that. While it still ached, and the new flesh felt strange, he was fully functional and capable enough, so why wouldn't he spar with Takame? In truth, he'd probably only stop when he was properly incapacitated, something that wasn't particularly likely.

Takame also knew how effective Naruto's healing technique was, that odd black substance it produced aside, and didn't take it easy on him during their spar at all. On the contrary, she seemed to hit him harder, faster, and more viciously than usual.

Naruto wasn't entirely sure what was up with her, but when he tried using Kurama's negative emotion sensing all he got was undirected rage, anger, and a degree of bitter resignation.

Regardless of that, their sparring session went as usual and was followed by breakfast like normal. After that, Naruto got ready for the Ninja Academy, packing a bag with everything he needed. A standard set of twenty kunai and twenty-five shuriken were quickly followed by pens, pencils, notepads, and the required text books.

They weren't _supposed_ to have their weaponry at the bottom of their bag, but Naruto didn't particularly like kunai or shuriken, and even if he did need them, all he had to do was place one hand on the ground and make them with earth manipulation, compression, and alteration. They weren't _quite_ the same quality as shinobi standard weaponry, but they were more than adequate for an academy student.

Just as he was about to head out the door, he paused, realising something wasn't going like it normally did. Patting at his hair, he found it lacking a butterfly that had rested there for several years now.

"Where's Benio?" He asked.

Takame and Masami glanced at each other, before both looked to Minako. All of them shrugged as one, not knowing where she was. Tsurara didn't bother replying, she was always near Naruto, and if he didn't know, then she wouldn't know either.

"She said something about a hobby last I heard." The zashiki-warashi offered, though her answer still didn't really explain anything. "Besides, it's not the first time she's gone out by herself, I'm sure we'll see her later."

Naruto murmured an agreement to that, but he wasn't so sure. She usually told them when she'd be off doing her own thing, if as a courtesy if nothing else, but Benio was her own person and she didn't need a keeper to watch over her every moment of the day.

Naruto decided to simply shrug and go with it. Maybe when she came back from whatever it was she was doing she would tell him about it, but it wasn't any of his business really. For now, he was going to go to school. If he remembered right, they had sparring practise today, and Naruto needed all of the help he could get there. He didn't know why it was, but despite how much effort he put into it, he was only just above middle of his class in pure taijutsu fights.

xxxxx

Later that night, Hinata Hyuuga shuffled her feet nervously as she stood in one of the training rooms near her bedroom. Technically speaking, she shouldn't be out of bed right now, but everyone else aside from the perimeter guards should be asleep now, and she didn't think she'd have enough confidence to do this if there was a good chance of being discovered.

Laying on the floor next to her were numerous non-lethal weapons she'd managed to acquire discretely. This included nets, bolas, whips, and many other … items used to capture and restrain someone without killing them, or even doing much damage to their bodies.

She gulped and licked her lips nervously as she looked at the mannequin set up in front of her. Tentatively, she reached for a whip, before channelling her chakra through it. As it was made from a formerly living thing, being braided leather, it responded rather favourably to her chakra.

Letting it hang loosely at her side, Hinata marvelled at how the whip moved sinuously as she pulsed her chakra through it, writhing in a very snake-like fashion, almost alive really. After she began to get the hang of making it roll and crawl across the floor, a process which only took a quarter hour or so, she began trying to lift it off the ground just with her chakra.

Unfortunately, she found this more difficult. While she could make the whip bend one way or another, gravity kept it rolling to the side and curling into a spiral instead of having it support its own weight. This wouldn't stop her though, she was fairly determined to be good at this, Naruto had said she could fight without hurting people with something like this!

A crack echoed around the room as she lashed out at the target, the mannequin, and the whip wrapped itself around one of the outstretched limbs. Tugging on the whip proved it had a firm grip, and after several minutes of pulsing her chakra through it, she figured out how to get the whip to release what it was holding.

Another cracking noise echoed around the room as she made another attack. Once again, she spent a little time getting the whip to let go of the mannequin, this time trying to get it to return to her, though she failed at this part of her secret training session.

Once more she cast out her whip, again, and again, and again. She would stay up two more hours practising this new skill of hers, until the point it would only take her a few moments to get the whip to release whatever it had managed to wrap itself around.

xxxxx

Hiashi Hyuuga, face pale, quickly retreated from the room. Having been awoken by the noises close to his room, he had been drawn to the training room. Seeing his elder daughter practising to use the whip had brought him up short, and unbidden images drifted through his head, images of his late wife, Hitomi.

He gulped then, and began to wonder just how much Hinata might have taken after his departed spouse.

Seeing the whip hit somewhere Hinata hadn't intended it to go – though Hiashi wasn't aware it was a mistake – made him pale even more and wince in sympathy for the wooden mannequin. It was then he decided to leave and never mention her training unless she brought it up herself.

He pitied whatever man his daughter decided to chase in the future, unless they had a complimentary kink of course.


	29. Sasuke

AN: Okay, this chapter was very difficult to write, partially because of the content, and partially because I kept wanting to switch up the point of view. Anyway, I hope you like it, and I hope I'm building up a believable character here, rather than a caricature or something. Please tell me how well I did, and how I could develop it from this point forward! Cheers, and happy reading!

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 29 - Sasuke

His eyes shot open as he flew out of bed.

Panting haggardly, he looked around his room, a gap in his curtains letting through a chink of light to fall on his face. A hand clenched over his hammering heart that was trying to force itself through his ribcage as he calmed himself down as best he could.

He'd had that nightmare again.

The streets had been empty of life, quiet, and dark. He'd taken a curious look around, wondering where everyone was, a little unnerved with how creepily still and eerily silent everything was, but he was not afraid. No, he was training to be an awesome shinobi! A little thing like a deserted street wasn't going to scare him!

He'd pushed open his front door, then paused, expecting someone to shout out a greeting to him. Well, only one person really was that vocal in his home, but he didn't hear her cheerful voice calling out to him. Like outside, everything had been completely quiet.

Creeping through his own home, a shiver working its way up his spine, he felt like he didn't belong here. It was like his home had suddenly become the least inviting place he'd ever known, a place of fear and terror instead of love and joy, and it remained so even as he stepped into the living room.

There he saw her, impaled on a sword.

His mother dead, with his father beside her.

Looking up, he saw his brother's eyes, each one spinning with a pin wheel design in them. Those eyes seemed to get larger and larger, until they consumed his entire vision, drowning him in a sea of red and black as he-

Sasuke Uchiha slapped himself in the face, determined to overcome this fear.

Still, a solitary tear leaked down his cheek.

xxxxx

Sasuke kept himself silent as he made himself a bowl of cereal.

The house felt desolate, and it was, with him being the only person that lived there. All of the remaining Uchiha now lived next to each other, some of them even moving in with each other, but some of them, like Sasuke, couldn't do it, they just didn't feel safe living with strangers, no matter if they were distantly related or not.

Finishing up his breakfast, he put the bowl and spoon into the sink to wash later. He collected his things for the Academy, subconsciously arranging them as his mother used to every day, and stepped outside the front door.

He halted in his steps, seeing one of his distant cousins, he forgot the name, also leaving for the day. His tongue seemed to swell in his throat, cutting off his breath and making it hard for him to breathe. Images flashed before his eyes, a red and black landscape filled with the corpses of his clan.

He took a shaky breath, forcing the images Itachi's genjutsu had put in his head aside. His brother had _not_ killed his entire clan, there were still a few of them left. He had to remind himself of this every time he saw one of them, had to force himself to acknowledge that he wasn't delusional, that he wasn't seeing ghosts or figments of his own imagination.

He flinched slightly as his as yet unnamed cousin frowned in his direction, before they leapt to the rooftops and towards the village proper.

That was a thing now, wasn't it?

All of his remaining family had received physical injuries, life threatening ones… everyone except him. He didn't know why Itachi had done that, but he had to live with it now. Even not knowing them, they were still Uchiha, and their distrust of him cut deep, but he couldn't find it in himself to blame them.

Itachi had been the star of their clan, and he had slaughtered them like cattle after all they'd done for him. Did they think that Sasuke was going to end up the same way? Did they all secretly fear that he would wake up one morning and think, 'Hey, I think I'll kill the ones big bro missed' or something like that?

Sasuke felt some sort of emotion roiling within himself, but he couldn't tell what it was. Some small selfish part felt… almost grateful to Itachi, he'd seen some of the scars his remaining family had, and he was scared of getting any himself. He was also a young boy who had adored his older brother, and a part of him still felt like he was living some sort of nightmare, that none of this was real, but this voice was getting quieter the longer this 'nightmare' lasted.

One more part of Sasuke burned with anger. His beloved brother had done _this_ to him, made him an outcast in his own clan, had killed their parents, and… and… and he was still alive, doing who knew what, destroying how many more lives out there, Sasuke didn't know.

This made Sasuke furious. He'd been abandoned by his brother, like he wasn't even worth killing, and Itachi was now out there doing whatever he pleased. That thought was what really struck Sasuke hard, that his ever so cherished brother had so callously and casually slaughtered so many then just wandered off on his own. He really didn't know how to deal with this!

 _Kill him_

Sasuke froze at that. It wasn't the first time that thought had drifted into his head. He'd awoken from his coma less than a week ago, his emotions all over the place, but the more time passed, the more that thought, that focus, seemed to settle into the centre of his mind.

 _Kill him_

Would that make the other Uchiha stop looking at him like that? Would bringing down the one that hurt them, that killed all their loved ones, make them see that he was not the same as him? He was _Sasuke_ Uchiha, not _Itachi_ Uchiha. His own father had compared them and found his younger son lacking, so _why_ did it feel like all his clan would see when they looked at him would be _Itachi_?

 _Kill Itachi_

Sasuke clenched his fists at his sides, trying to understand what he thought about his brother. Some part of him still cared about him, another part hated him for killing his parents, despised him for making him an outcast in his clan, and another part of him _feared_ his brother, especially that torturous mental genjutsu, Tsukuyomi.

 _Itachi will die… and I will be the one to kill him._

As this resolution formed in the boy's mind, he steeled himself for the hard path he knew he would have to walk. Itachi was a genius, there was no denying that, and Sasuke would have to work himself to the bloody bone to have even a hope of catching up to him. He would forge himself into a weapon capable of taking his own brother down.

xxxxx

"Uzumaki, can you tell me which seven major clans formed the first Konoha?"

Sasuke's eyes drifted over to the blonde boy at the back of the classroom as the teacher asked him a question. He'd heard about how it was because of him that he wasn't the _only_ Uchiha left in Konoha. He'd heard how his actions had saved a dozen of his clan from death.

With as great an achievement as that… Sasuke found him somewhat unimpressive.

His hair needed to see a pair of scissors, and he had a wild look to him akin to an Inuzuka, just not as canine as Kiba was. He wore some sort of bracelet on his wrist with symbols etched into it, and he preferred wearing boots and shoes to the standard shinobi sandals, alongside some pieces of almost samurai-esque garb.

"Senju, Uchiha, Hyuuga, Yamanaka, Nara, Akimichi, and Kurama." The blonde answered the teacher. "The Inuzuka and Aburame joined less than two years later, and together they are known as the nine great clans of Konoha, though the Senju and Kurama clans are now almost extinct."

"Enough!" The teacher barked. "I didn't ask for all that. Now, who can name the eighteen clans that _don't_ have the Great status?"

Sasuke frowned in thought. The teacher had a note of distaste in his voice when he was talking to the blonde, and his expression didn't exactly look pleased at the correct answer he gave either. Having heard the near-reverence in the way his clan spoke of the boy, it really struck him as odd that this teacher seemed to harbour so much dislike of his classmate.

As far as he could recall, the blonde had never been disruptive in class, nor was he particularly bad at anything. Okay, so he was a middle of the road student in taijutsu and with throwing weapons, but his theory was good and he couldn't remember the blonde doing badly in any of the wilderness survival exercises the class had done. They weren't supposed to learn ninjutsu until next year either, so he couldn't be bad in something he'd yet to learn.

The blonde was an enigma to Sasuke. He seemed to be just another student, and yet he'd managed to almost single-handedly pull his clan from the brink, stabilising the dying long enough for them to get proper medical attention. The only time he seemed to interact with anyone was during school, because whenever Sasuke had tried to search for him in the village, he was nowhere to be found. He spoke pleasantly with other kids, and yet he didn't seem to be friends with any of them either. It was a strange mix of open warmth and aloof detachment that gave him a headache just thinking about it.

As the teacher continued to teach the class, Sasuke kept his eyes on Naruto. The blonde's eyes flickered to the left as he muttered something under his breath. A few moments later, he grinned slightly, like he'd heard someone say something amusing, before he replied, again too quietly for anyone to hear him.

Was the Uzumaki… talking to himself?

The blonde's eyes seemed to follow something, Sasuke matching him as best he could, until they landed on the board eraser… a board eraser that leaped off the ledge it was situated on and smacked the teacher straight in the face, making him cough and splutter due to all of the chalk dust on it.

Was that a jutsu? Sasuke knew that there were jutsu that could affect objects at a distance. The Nara clan jutsu didn't _have_ to connect to something alive, and wind jutsu didn't have to be obvious, his big bro-… he'd been told before that sometimes the subtler techniques were the more effective.

Still, the question remained, just why did he do it?

Taking another look at Naruto, Sasuke saw he looked… exasperated? He'd palmed his face, but he didn't look particularly surprised or anything, like this sort of thing was a common occurrence. Sasuke saw Naruto's lips move again, but he wasn't good enough at lip reading to get any sort of clue about what he was sayi-

There!

Naruto's eyes were _definitely_ looking at something above the level of everyone's heads.

So, he could see, or possibly sense, something that Sasuke couldn't, that the class couldn't, something that the Chunin teacher was completely oblivious too and had just been… pranked by.

What was it though?

Was whatever it was the reason that Naruto had been able to save his clan from near extinction? Sasuke himself felt some disbelief that Naruto 'just happened' to be in the area when Itachi went insane. He couldn't be the only one who was somewhat suspicious of that, could he?

Not that Sasuke thought Naruto was responsible or anything, far from it. No, he was, dare he say it, _grateful_ that Naruto had saved some of his remaining family. Being one of the few Uchiha left, and the only main family one remaining, meant a lot of people were looking his way. Some, like his clan, were suspicious because it was _his_ brother that did it, but honestly, it was the rest of the them that were worse.

The ones who had _expectations_. The ones that thought, just because he was the only main family Uchiha left, or because his brother was a prodigy, or because he'd survived a direct encounter with his brother, or whatever other reason they'd thought up, that he should be something 'special'.

The ones that were already calling him Uchiha-sama were the absolute worst of the lot.

It made even the young Sasuke cringe when he heard it. The unwarranted respect that they had for him, the excitement some of them had when they looked at him, and the stories and rumours that were already beginning to spread throughout the village.

Who could believe that an inexperienced eight year old had somehow 'defeated and driven off' an experienced, thirteen year old prodigy that was already in Anbu? It was barely any better than thinking that a fifteen month old baby was capable of beating a grown man of fifty four who was known as a remorseless killer.

Sasuke shoved that random thought aside, having no idea where that particular comparison had come from. He went back to watchi- _observing_ Naruto, and really, he didn't think that the blonde was being particularly subtle himself about all of the oddities around himself.

He wasn't even pretending to look at the instructor, his eyes following whatever it was he could see. He was speaking quietly, but made no effort to obscure his lips from those that might read them. His notes, that Sasuke had caught sight of a few days ago when they were packing up to go home, weren't even legible, they were just a bunch of random scribbles.

Yet still, Naruto was competing for the top spot in their theoretical subjects, matched only by that pink haired girl, and the Nara when he bothered to answer a question. He was doing better in physical subjects than those two though, especially as his stamina seemed inexhaustible.

"Sasuke, can you now tell me what sort of jutsu the second Hokage is famous for using?" The teacher called out, breaking the raven haired boy from his thoughts.

"Tobirama Senju was famous for his masterful use of water ninjutsu, and for creating a large number of jutsu, more than half of which are now considered forbidden." Sasuke answered concisely and with sufficient detail.

"Correct. Well done, Sasuke." The teacher praised him, and then continued on with his lesson.

Sasuke shot one last look towards Naruto, before he turned his full attention to the lesson, just missing Naruto's curious gaze landing on him.

xxxxx

Once lessons were over with for the day, Sasuke grabbed his bag and headed outside hurriedly. He didn't want to talk to anyone, especially not if they were going to ask about _that_ night, and Sasuke was just old enough to realise how insensitive kids could be, and young enough to ignore his own hypocrisy for doing the same.

He was brought up short when he saw half a dozen figures walking down the street. Each of them were about eight feet tall, and thin enough that they looked stretched out, not helped at all by their long, thin arms. He knew what they were though, 'shikigami', some messed up sort of solid clone that Naruto used, that his clan now used to bolster their numbers for the police force.

Looking up, he saw one of his cousins. This one he did know the name of, Akira. While Sasuke was still young, he was considered to be a sort of stand-in leader of the clan for now. He couldn't make any political moves, like arrange marriages, make bargains, or anything like that, but he was keeping the clan running smoothly, or at least as smoothly as was possible right now.

Sasuke could admit, using Naruto's shikigami for police did make a lot of sense. Every clan contributed something to Konoha, whether it was the Nara who made medicine for the hospital, the Aburame who kept pests away from farmland, or the Inuzuka who took the majority of the border patrols and pretty much were the only veterinarians in the village.

The Uchiha were the police force, that was fact. The one time someone had suggested that they share the burden now that they were so few… well, the Uchiha who had been there at the time had punched the man in the face and almost started a brawl in the street.

Still, their numbers were low, and even if every Uchiha still alive were to try and handle all of the crime that inevitably occurred in a village the size of Konoha – which was a village in name only – they'd find it a nigh impossible task. That's why they _needed_ some sort of assistance, but as has previously been said, they couldn't just open their ranks to anyone.

The shikigami, being created by a technique and not a person in their own right, managed to fit their requirements. They made up the much needed manpower of the police force and their presence meant they didn't need to recruit non-Uchiha as well.

Sasuke watched as a pair of large wolf shikigami, standing shoulder to shoulder to Akira, padded across to him as he watched the shikigami patrolling the streets as the Uchiha had done until recently. They stood out more than the Konoha Police Force had, and they made the villagers talk, but they did have their advantages too.

For one, it was impossible to bribe them. That's not to say that the Uchiha had been bribed as police officers, but even making an attempt at it now was pointless. What use did they have for money? They probably didn't even understand the concept of wages, never mind being paid to 'look the other way'.

They also seemed to have just as good vision during the night as they did during the day, which… kinda made sense. It wasn't like they had eyes, so whatever method they used to see likely didn't rely on light. That meant that night time was just as bad a time to commit a crime as during the day, as the police suffered no handicaps because of dim lighting.

Sasuke growled low in his throat and turned the other way. He didn't have time to admire someone else's successes and abilities, he needed to use his time wisely and devote as much of it as he could to making _himself_ stronger. As much as this was so he could kill his brother, he also refused to be as helpless as that ever again.

He glanced back one last time at the shikigami walking down the street before turning away, his resolve firming within him. He was determined to be strong now, to be the _strongest_ , for those who are strongest are never weak, and only the weak are vulnerable.

He trudged along the path, taking a slightly longer route to one of the Uchiha training grounds. With barely a dozen clan members left, it wasn't like there weren't plenty of them to use. The Uchiha district, after all, was almost a small village unto itself.

xxxxx

The training ground Sasuke chose was an isolated one further away from the residential area. Dropping his bag next to a tree, he pulled out his shuriken and kunai. He approached the targets that were set up, slightly worn due to the weather, and began to systematically toss one after the other at it.

When he'd thrown them all, he collected them and tried again.

And again.

And again.

He kept up his repetitive task, attempting to improve both his technique and his consistency. He knew the theory for five different types of throws for shuriken, and three for kunai. Each one he practised again and again, until his wrist began to ache from it all.

Once he could barely pick up the sharp bits of metal, he clenched his fist and forced back tears as it throbbed angrily in reply to his treatment of it.

He ignored the pain.

Instead, he took a fighting stance in front of one of the wooden dummies and began to kick it.

And again.

And again.

He kept going until both his legs ached as much as his wrists did, whereupon he collapsed to the ground.

Sweating and sore, he reaches once more for his bag and pulls out a scroll that he put in there this morning. It's a jutsu scroll, one that _every_ Uchiha needs to know before they can even be thought of as an adult, like a rite of passage. Just why the Uchiha thought that spitting fireballs made one mature though… well, let's let the crazies think what they want, eh?

Sasuke studied the scroll carefully, reading each step of the process several times before moving on.

Step one, protect the throat, lungs, and mouth.

Using chakra, coat the inside of your body in a layer of neutral, non-conductive chakra, While a beginner may make a thicker layer than a master, the important part here is that the chakra be truly neutral. If it is not, then it will likely ignite and burn you from the inside out. Therefore, it is recommended that you get an experienced ninja to check your technique before even your first attempt at creating a fireball.

There was more to it, but that was more of an explanation of how to call up your chakra inside of yourself, rather than outside like other techniques required. The 'lightning arrows' that he'd heard that Naruto used were an example of an externally manifested jutsu. The Great Fireball, however, was _internally_ generated.

Step two, provide the fuel for the fire.

This step is more difficult than the first, as you must focus on two separate functions to succeed. While maintaining your protective lining, you must now create a small orb of volatile chakra at the back of your mouth. Do not create it too close to your teeth and lips, or it will not ignite, and do not create it down your throat, or foolishly, in your lungs. This will result in nothing more than internal burns.

Step three, create a spark as you exhale.

Finally, you must forcefully expel air from your lungs. This gives the fireball a direction. NEVER inhale when doing this part of the technique, as it will result in internal burns for you. The spark required to ignite the chakra should not be large. In truth, it is better to be conservative rather than reckless at this stage, as only practise will teach you exactly how much is necessary for this technique. Every person is different, and every person's chakra is also subtly different. Be cautious, and only experiment with this jutsu once you have gained a full understanding of both the technique itself, and yourself.

Sasuke closes his eyes as he thinks about the technique. He's seen his clan use it often enough, and it's the basis they use to learn even more powerful fire techniques, even learning fire manipulation, though the latter is rare. Who bothers to learn exactly how to manipulate an element when there are so many jutsu that can work for you and only take a fraction of the time to learn?

You could show someone the hand seals of a technique, a general idea of how it is supposed to work, and they'd be able to get it down in a week or less. Maybe not up to the standard of someone who actually _has_ practised with it and the element, but it would still be functional. That was the point of hand seals after all, they made things so much easier.

Looking at the scroll, and the diagram at the end that showed the three hand seals necessary to cast this jutsu, boar, horse, and tiger.

Slowly, Sasuke worked his hands into the first seal. Once he had done that, he then moved them into the second seal, and finally the third. Once again, he repeated this over and over again until he was starting to drift off, the motion becoming second nature, like breathing.

He didn't know how long he stayed out, but the stars were already dancing in the sky when he got up to go home. Looking up, Sasuke wished they'd go away, wished he had more time to train himself alone in this relatively small field. However, he also knew that he needed to sleep if he was to keep himself going.

Still, perhaps he could actually give this fireball thing a try before he went home.

He coated his lungs, throat, and mouth in chakra, his broth- Itachi having told him he'd been doing it right not even two days before he'd gone mad. He felt the small ball of volatile chakra like a marble getting stuck in his throat. He took a large breath in, and breathed out hard as he tried to ignite that small marble of condensed chakra!

He spluttered as tongues of flame, two feet long at best, leap from his lips before turning to smoke and dispersing.

He grimaced. Itachi had been a genin at age seven, and here he was, eight years old and only just starting to get the hang of the Great Fireball technique. He had to try harder, he had to be better than he was, and he _would_ be. He might only have the basics of the technique down, but give him a few weeks, and he'd have something workable, and after that he would start looking at other fire techniques. After all, Uchihas _always_ had a fire alignment, just like everyone knew an Aburame had an earth alignment.

xxxxx

Pushing open the front door, Sasuke almost calls out an 'I'm home' to the empty building, but he manages to swallow it before it passes his lips. Verbalising it would just make the silence worse, and Sasuke was too tired to want to bother stirring his emotions right now.

He dumped his school bag by the door, taking his lunch box out of it and taking it to the kitchen, where he puts it next to the breakfast dishes he has yet to wash up. He opens the fridge, grabbing a few ingredients to make into his supper, and sets about making himself something.

It's nothing fancy, he's eight years old and he's never had to cook for himself before, but he's still capable enough to make himself some rice and vegetables, and it's not like he can't mix cooked ham or something in there to give the meal some meat.

He eats it in silence, washes the dishes, and prepares his lunch for the next day. As he makes his way to bed, Sasuke looks around the house and realises that he's going to need to clean and tidy the place sometime soon, there was even a thin layer of dust beginning to gather on one of the shelves he walked past.

He would do that some other day though, maybe the weekend? Then he could spend the day cleaning up and no one would see him looking ridiculous if he somehow managed to mess it up or something. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.

Crawling into bed, Sasuke closed his eyes and settled down to sleep for the night. As exhausted as he was, he fell asleep quickly, and his rest would be undisturbed by nightmares.


End file.
